lia-hills.webp

Lia Hills

Stories

Liaa is a sophomore at the University of Texas, majoring in Economics and Computer Science. She enjoys running, reading, and baking. She’s passionate about making mental health resources more accessible, has created two mental wellness apps, and has conducted research to explore the ways in which technology can help make the mental health journey more accessible and personal for all. 

Liaa-Kumar-scaled.jpg

Liaa Kumar

<h4
 class="block-heading"
 id="h-liaa-kumar-lost-her-mother-to-cancer-when-she-was-a-teenager-now-she-s-helping-others-by-volunteering-at-kesem-an-organization-that-helps-children-of-cancer-patients-to-develop-resilience-confidence-and-lasting-feelings-of-joy-and-hope-her-story-of-grief-and-hope-will-touch-your-heart"
 >
 LIAA KUMAR
 lost her mother to cancer when she was a teenager. Now she’s helping
 others by volunteering at Kesem, an organization that helps children
 of cancer patients to develop resilience, confidence, and lasting
 feelings of joy and hope. Her story of grief and hope will touch your
 heart.
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Life stopped being normal two weeks before my eighth grade graduation,
 when my mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer. At 13, I didn’t know
 much about cancer, and I didn’t know how to understand the heaviness
 with which the adults around me whispered, “Stage four.” My mother began
 chemo that summer and decided to undergo treatment overseas, in India,
 with the support of family. I went with her.
 

 
 As a kid, you take the idea of having a parent for granted. It’s a given
 that your parents will stick around, that they’ll always be strong,
 always be ready to take care of you. And even as I began to understand
 the gravity of my mom’s diagnosis, I believed more than anything that
 this was temporary. I knew my mom, she was indescribably strong, she was
 my rock, so of course she would be okay. She would be okay because I
 needed her to be okay. That’s what moms do. They look out for their
 kids. Always.
 

 
 That summer I spent a lot of time in small cold rooms, trying to
 understand the ways in which my mom was changing. No one warns you about
 how much cancer takes from the people you love. Her body withered, and
 chemo left dark streaks on her skin that ran up and down her arms and
 legs. She felt nauseous most of the time, and making sure she was eating
 enough became an everyday worry.
 

 
 I supported her body as we inched our way up and down the handful of
 stairs outside the hospital. Sitting across the floor from your mom, a
 row of orange pill bottles lined up between you, begging and bargaining
 for every pill or protein supplement that had to be taken, turns your
 world upside down.
 

 
 My mother and I became closer. In between the stress and sadness we
 watched movies, played card games, practiced tying her head scarf in
 different ways around her newly bald head, and talked. We did a lot of
 talking. Mostly we talked about what we’d like to do once this whole
 nightmare was over. Fly to Europe, visit a monastery in the Himalayas,
 finally go to the beach again. It was difficult to say goodbye at the
 end of the summer. It was difficult to leave her behind and face the
 idea of beginning high school without my mom, but even as I said
 goodbye, I knew it would only be a matter of time before she came back
 and everything would be normal again.
 

 
 Without my mom at home, I had to learn a lot of things on the fly.
 Suddenly, there was no one at home to wake me up in the morning, remind
 me to clean my room, do my laundry, or make my lunch. I learned how to
 grocery shop and the basics of housekeeping, and I missed my mom very
 much. The responsible parts of growing up aren’t much fun, especially
 when they’re all crammed into the span of a few months, and especially
 when it feels like the people around you don’t really understand what
 you’re going through.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center block-heading">
 The responsible parts of growing up aren’t much fun, especially when they’re all crammed into the span of a few months, and especially when it feels like the people around you don’t really understand what you’re going through.
 </h4>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 I spoke to my mom a few times a week, on the rare occasions she wasn’t
 in chemo or exhausted from chemo. I felt like she was slipping away even
 through the phone, and I’d hold it closer to my ear as if that’d bring
 her back. The good news that kept me going was that she was doing
 better. A miraculous feat for someone who had been diagnosed so late. I
 knew it was temporary, she was going to get better, and she was getting
 better. Until she wasn’t.
 

 
 My mom passed away near the end of my freshman year, and it felt like an
 unsatisfactory end to a draining emotional affair. Grief is its own
 monster, but so is the entire process of losing a loved one to cancer.
 Most kids don’t spend their adolescence worrying about hospital bills,
 doctors’ appointments, or a parent’s white blood cell count. It can be a
 very isolating experience.
 

 
 Most people can understand loss, but not everyone understands what
 cancer feels like. So, at Kesem we remind the kids that they still
 deserve to be kids. We remind them they’re not in this alone.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center block-heading">
 At Kesem we remind the kids that they still deserve to be kids. We remind them they’re not in this alone.
 </h4>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 I am so incredibly grateful that I’ve found this organization and these
 people, that I have the opportunity to help these strong, wonderful,
 amazing kids. And I am so incredibly excited that you may decide to join
 us. We’re gonna do great things this year! I can’t wait.

When a parent has cancer

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">A luminous fable from LIAA KUMAR on self-trust, belonging, and <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/zuris-guiding-light" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inner guidance</a>.</h4>Zuri, the little firefly, was very nervous. In just a few hours, her family would be making the long journey to a new clearing in the forest. As the youngest of all her firefly siblings, Zuri had just learned to use her light. While it seemed to come easily to every one of her siblings, hers seemed to be stubbornly stuck at a dim little flicker. She practiced every day for hours, and it was still only half as bright as the others’. Not to mention that she had never flown such a long distance before. Before long, the family was starting to stretch their wings and prepare for takeoff. “Hope you can keep up with us, ZuZu!” her siblings called out, laughing as they flew past to join the others. Zuri watched how easily they flew past, tracing their bright lights through the darkening sky, and felt her nervousness turn to dread.&nbsp;“You’ll be just fine tonight, Zuri”, said a warm, familiar voice floating down. Grandma Firefly took Zuri’s hands in her own, smiled encouragingly, and said, “I know you’ve been worried about making the trip tonight, but always remember… there’s a big Great Light that shines in all of us, just open your heart and it will always lead you home.” Zuri smiled. She was feeling much better. She took Grandma’s hand and they flew off to join the swarm.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/zuri_guiding_light2_0d07172048.webp" alt="zuri-guiding-light2.webp"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">… there’s a big Great Light that shines in all of us,&nbsp; just open your heart and it will always lead you home.</h4><hr>&nbsp;A few hours later, the swarm was still flying, making steady progress towards the new clearing. While Zuri wasn’t the fastest flier in the swarm, she was managing to keep up, and her wings weren’t even tired! “Maybe I was worried for no reason at all!” little Zuri thought cheerfully to herself.Just as she had that thought, the sky above them began to darken. Big gray clouds rolled across the sky, and the lights around her seemed to intensify in response. Calls went out amongst the group, “Stick together, everyone!” “Watch out for the water!” The wind started to howl and swirl, and the swarm began to fly faster, but Zuri struggled to keep up with them. Just then, a powerful gust of wind blew right under her wings and sent her tumbling far, far away.When she looked around again, the forest was dark. Zuri buzzed around in circles, looking for the telltale glow of a firefly family, but could only see dark trees and shadows. Her dim little light seemed so useless in the vast, dark storm. Zuri buzzed around and around. She felt so alone, and she was getting scared.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/zuri_guiding_light3_39c99da509.webp" alt="zuri-guiding-light3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;Finally, when her wings got tired, she found a warm leaf to snuggle under. It was then that she remembered her grandma’s words. “There’s a Great Light that shines in all of us; you just need to open your heart to feel it.” Zuri quieted her worried thoughts as she closed her eyes and opened her heart. She began to feel a warm, glowing presence. It was as if she could feel all the love she had for her grandma, her family, and all the world flowing from her heart and all around her. As she felt this warm energy surrounding her, Zuri opened her eyes and was shocked to see her own light shining brightly against the dark sky. She couldn’t believe it! She twirled around and around, watching it illuminate the shadows that had just seemed impossible to get through.The storm was beginning to clear, and she began to feel a gentle pull, an invisible string guiding her forward. She decided to trust this inner compass and follow it through the forest. Soon enough, she began to see a bright light through the trees and heard cheers from her family as they saw her bright light approaching. “Zuri! Zuri!” they called, and Zuri saw her grandma fly up to greet her. She barreled into her grandma’s arms and hugged her tight, relieved to be back home. “I see you found the Great Light that shines with you, my Zuri, just as it shines in all of us”, her grandma said. “I’m so proud of you.”&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/zuri_guiding_light4_4ccd4f502e.webp" alt="zuri-guiding-light4.webp"></figure> &nbsp;

Zuri’s Guiding Light

<h4>LIAA KUMAR follows Barnaby the squirrel on his frantic search for a winter home—and the simple discovery that finally helps him feel at rest.</h4>Barnaby the squirrel was having a very bad day. Winter was only a week away, and he still hadn’t found a cozy winter home! By now, all the other forest animals were settling into their warm dens. Barnaby needed to find a new place, stat! But where was a squirrel supposed to find a bed for the winter in this forest? He needed some ideas.He started scampering through the forest when he came upon a burrow. He stuck his head inside and saw three little bunnies slumbering <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/solving-challenges" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">peacefully</a>. “Oh, that looks nice and warm!” Barnaby thought to himself. “I’ll just dig myself a burrow!” Barnaby found a nice little clearing a few feet away and started digging. He dug and dug and dug, until the soft soil turned into a tangle of tough earth, roots, and rocks. But still, the burrow wasn’t nearly big enough for him yet. And his poor little paws were so tired and sore. Barnaby huffed and puffed as he wiped sweat from his brow. “Whew! This is going to take way too long. Maybe a burrow isn’t the right idea for me,” he thought.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/barnaby_newhome2_0312e5869d.webp" alt="barnaby-newhome2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;He scampered over to the river to get a drink of water. That’s when he saw a family of beavers preparing their dam for the colder weather. The thick walls looked like they did a <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-heartful-negotiator-part-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">good job</a> of keeping the beavers warm, and it was a lovely, big home. Much bigger than the bunny burrow.“Well, that’s it!” Barnaby thought to himself. “I’ll build myself one of those!”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/barnaby_newhome3_504d094df1.webp" alt="barnaby-newhome3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;He started running around, dragging as many branches, twigs, and leaves as he could find back to the riverbank. He started piling everything together, trying his best to make it look just like the dam across the river, but every time he built everything up, the wind would blow and knock it all over again.Barnaby scurried around, trying it one way and then another. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his home to stand up straight. Finally, he got frustrated.&nbsp;“Oh, what am I going to do!” he exclaimed as he threw the twigs on the ground. He slumped to the ground, disappointed. “I’m never going to find a place to sleep for the winter at this rate.”That’s when a beaver slowly made his way across the river. He crawled out onto the riverbank and took a good look at Barnaby’s house, or at least what was left of it.“You know, son,” the beaver began, “I’ve been watching you for a while now from across the way. You’ve been hard at work on building this uh, ‘structure’ here. May I ask what it’s meant to be?”&nbsp;Barnaby sighed. “Well, it’s supposed to be my home for the winter. I tried to make it look just like your house, but it’s not going too well.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/barnaby_newhome4_da566f4450.webp" alt="barnaby-newhome4.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“Hm,” the beaver hummed. “Well, if I know anything about anything, it’s that trying to do everything at once often gets you nowhere. And a squirrel like you doesn’t have any use for a big old dam for the winter! Maybe a little more patience might help you discover exactly what it is you really need.”Barnaby thought about that as he turned and headed back into the forest. Where did Barnaby truly want to be? He was gazing up at all the towering trees around him when it struck him: “Why, I want to be in a tree, of course!” he exclaimed.That’s when he spotted a great big ancient oak tree with a strong, deep knoll right in the center. Barnaby hurried up the trunk, eager to take a look. “Oh, I hope there’s no one inside already!”He peered cautiously into the warm, wooden room, and his tail started twitching with joy. “It’s perfect! Now I just need to add some final touches.”Barnaby wandered through the forest one last time, picking out the best twigs and bits of moss to take back with him to his new home. Working carefully and patiently, he layered it all together, finding the right spot for every piece, until the whole knoll was soft and warm and very cozy.“I guess it wasn’t so impossible after all!” he exclaimed. “I just needed to take some time to discover what I really needed.”&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/barnaby_newhome5_b2052794cb.webp" alt="barnaby-newhome5.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">AI-generated images</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Barnaby’s New Home

Dr. Lilla Watson (born 1940) is a Murri (Indigenous Australian) visual artist, activist and academic working in the field of Women's issues and Indigenous epistemology. Watson was the inaugural president of the Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency, a founding member of the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association, and a member of the Aboriginal and Islander Independent School Board in the late 1980s. She has been a consultant and a member of working groups, panels and selection committees for many Government and non-Government bodies.

Lilla Watson.webp

Lilla Watson

Let us work together

Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. Tomlin started her career in stand-up comedy and sketch comedy before acting onstage and on-screen. She has received seven Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, two Tony Awards, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2017.

Lily_Tomlin.jpeg

Lily Tomlin

Try slowing down

Lisa lives in South Africa and is a writer, New Insights life coach, and currently training to become a recovery coach through the Foundation Clinic. Lisa is passionate about empowering people, conscious awareness and being a flame of love. Her life experience has taught her about the importance of change in one’s life and to always learn, unlearn and relearn.

lisa-ann-catano-img.jpg

Lisa Ann Catano

<h4>LISA ANN CATANO shares some of the research findings in epigenetics that show us that our genes are affected by our beliefs and thinking more than we realise.</h4><hr>Dr Bruce Lipton, a cellular biologist who was at the University of Wisconsin cloning human muscle cells, is best known for challenging the existing belief that the human body is controlled by genes. In his video, The Biology of Perception, he demonstrates to the audience that perception affects biology.He found the following:In one of his experiments a stem cell was isolated and put into a petri dish (a cell-culture dish) where it divided every ten hours. The cells were then split up into three groups and placed into separate petri dishes. In each of the three dishes the growth medium in which the cells lived was different. In the first dish the cells formed bone, in the second dish they formed muscle, and in the third dish they formed fat cells. All of the cells were genetically identical when they were first separated, yet each dish produced different results.<hr>Dr Lipton’s research is life changing for&nbsp;all of us, because his research enunciates that we have the power to choose our destiny at any given point. From victims we can become masters of our lives as we can determine how we respond to the environment.<hr>Why was this so? Since the genes were all identical the differences were because of the environment in which they were placed. The environment was the stimulus to which the cells responded. Genes respond to their environment. It is the genes’ perception of their environment that causes them to behave in a certain way.We have been taught that our genes determine our lives – our behavior, emotions, character, health and biology. We have been educated to believe that we do not have any control over our lives. We have been told that our genes are inherited from our family and we are a victim to this heredity: if there is cancer in your family you are vulnerable to that illness; if your father or mother were prone to addiction, you will to some extent be the same, or feel entitled to justify similar behavior. This brings about a feeling of powerlessness, that your life is destined to be a certain way because of your genes. So a kind of apathy takes over, a ‘Why should I try?’ attitude.Dr Lipton’s research is life changing for all of us, because his research enunciates that we have the power to choose our destiny at any given point. From victims we can become masters of our lives as we can determine how we respond to the environment. Of course the genetic patterns are there, but they are not as fixed as we once believed.<hr>Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Viktor E. Frankl<hr>You were born into the world without any beliefs and since you learned to believe certain things by your parents, education and social systems; you have the ability to unlearn them and try new ones. As you change your thinking, you change your mind and biology, which culminates in an evolved reality.In addition to the new understanding that perception influences behavior, Dr Lipton goes even deeper by saying that perception not only influences genes, but it also rewrites them! Like any living being the cell is a conscious organism. By virtue of its state of consciousness the cells perception of the environment is what controls the gene. In his study, Dr Lipton provides proof of how a belief actually switches on a gene.To demonstrate the power of belief, let’s take the example of our beloved insect, the bumble bee. Aerodynamically the bumble bee is not really designed to fly. This is apparent in observing its rounded hairy body that is much larger than the little wings that struggle to carry it. Now imagine that someone repeatedly told the bumble bee at a young that she was not designed for flight; do you suppose she would be flying today? Of course not and yet the bumble bee flies nonetheless, even if a bit clumsily at times. Belief is powerful and at times can often override the most logical reasoning.<hr>When the mind&nbsp;is peaceful, we&nbsp;are free from worries and mental discomfort, and we begin to experience true happiness. In this state of grace and Godliness, healing can be restored.<hr><h4>A Medical Example</h4>Carl G. Jung in his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, describes a patient sent by an American colleague with the accompanying diagnosis, “Alcoholic neurasthenia: incurable.” Jung discovered that the patient was struggling to hold onto his manhood in a tyrannical relationship with his mother. According to Jung she was a “power devil”. She owned a large firm where the son worked and was very unhappy. Due to her power games he chose to drink as a way of self- medicating. He did not have the adequate self-belief or strength of character to stand up to her, or resign from the comfort of the wealthy family business.Jung took the initiative, behind his back, to give his mother a medical certificate stating his inability to carry out his work-related responsibilities due to his alcoholism, and recommended his redundancy. Although the man was furious with Jung (albeit an unethical move for a medical practitioner), he went on to create a life in which he thrived. He built a successful career, among other things, and his wife was extremely grateful to Jung for his instinctive approach to what seemed like a hopeless case. The man gave up drinking and his character developed and strengthened handsomely.This is a fine example of a man who generated a wholesome life and personality by changing the constituents of his environment. By removing himself from a negative situation that did no service to his character, he was able to create a new life.<h4>Remedy</h4>Meditation and visualisation are strong repertoires for holistic health and vitality. Studies illustrate that meditation can diminish all kinds of physical diseases and psychological disorders. The immune system, blood pressure, pain response, stress hormone levels and even cellular health can all be improved. Psychologically, meditation reduces depression and anxiety disorders, ADHD, bipolar disorder, addiction and eating disorders among others.Meditation actually makes structural changes to the brain and reprograms the DNA. The way neurons communicate with each other can change and thus create new circuits. Some brain regions become denser than others and others become less dense. Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity improve, including memory, critical thinking and overall cognitive functionality.Meditation alters perception and the mind. It is a method for acquainting our minds with virtue. The more familiar our mind is with virtue, the calmer and more peaceful it becomes. When the mind is peaceful, we are free from worries and mental discomfort, and we begin to experience true happiness. In this state of grace and Godliness, healing can be restored. Thus, the practice of meditation confirms the outcome of Dr Lipton’s experiments, which state that perception influences genes and can also rewrite them.SOURCESThe Biology of Perception, Dr Bruce Lipton. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnmaiWWZ3fc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnmaiWWZ3fc</a>Kymatica, Ben Stewart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfc7nXNPVz4Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung &amp; Aniella Jaffe, 1963, Pantheon Books.Meditation Health Benefits: What The Practice Does To Your Body, Meredith Melnick.https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/meditation-health-benefits_n_3178731.htmlThe New Meditation Handbook, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, 2013, Tharpa Publications.Psychology, John W. Santrock, 7th edition, 2003, Chapter 6: ‘States of Consciousness’, McGraw-Hill College.<hr>Article by LISA ANN CATANO<hr>

Do Our Genes Define Us?

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Emotions

lisa-leslie.webp

Lisa Leslie

My mother

Lisa is the Executive Director at Returning to Spirit, and a member of the delegation of indigenous leaders who met the Pope to invite him to Canada to apologize for the harms inflicted on generations of indigenous families. She is from Hollow Water First Nation, Manitoba.

Lisa-Raven.jpg

Lisa Raven

<h4
 class="block-heading"
 id="h-lisa-raven-is-the-executive-director-of-returning-to-spirit-and-a-member-of-the-delegation-of-indigenous-leaders-who-met-the-pope-to-invite-him-to-canada-to-apologize-for-the-harms-inflicted-on-generations-of-indigenous-families-here-she-shares-what-reconciliation-means-to-her-her-organization-delivers-two-four-day-sequential-and-experiential-workshops-on-reconciliation-you-can-find-out-more-at-https-www-returningtospirit-org"
 >
 LISA RAVEN
 is the Executive Director of Returning to Spirit, and a member of the
 delegation of indigenous leaders who met the Pope to invite him to
 Canada to apologize for the harms inflicted on generations of
 indigenous families. Here, she shares what reconciliation means to
 her. Her organization delivers two, four-day sequential and
 experiential workshops on reconciliation. You can find out more at
 <a href="https://www.returningtospirit.org/"
 >https://www.returningtospirit.org/</a
 >
 </h4>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 The truth and reconciliation process involves resolving conflict from
 the past, often between governments, non-state bodies, and groups of
 people. The process1 aims at healing the relationship between
 the opposing sides through uncovering facts, allowing for
 acknowledgment, mourning, and forgiveness – all toward the final goal of
 healing.
 

 
 Reconciliation means being at peace – our ability to be at peace for
 longer periods of time. Therefore, reconciliation has everything to do
 with each of us as individuals, as opposed to the “other.” For a lot of
 people, that’s a difficult concept to grasp.
 

 
 Some people in Canada believe that Indigenous people should “get over it
 already,” however, reconciliation is not a journey with a destination.
 It is a series of moments and building relationships along the way,
 which are highlighted by peace, understanding, and mutuality.
 

 
 For Indigenous people in Canada, reconciliation is in the language, and
 is a spiritual journey. There are no words for hate and resentment.
 There are words that describe those feelings, but there is also an
 understanding that if we hold those feelings we are actually harming
 ourselves. We are only meant to hold those feelings temporarily, because
 the translation of those words helps us understand that “as I hold this,
 I’m hurting myself, so I’m only holding it for a little while.”
 

 
 “Knowing” or holding hurt and suffering from the past is described as
 “already knowing.” It’s that little voice in your head that tells you
 the way things are, and the way people are – an “already knowing.” It’s
 like putting glasses on so we only see through that lens of judgment. It
 is like a boomerang that goes behind our backs, but then as soon as
 something happens, the feelings are re-triggered. For example, a couple
 of years ago, the discovery of children’s graves at the Kamloops Indian
 Residential School brought all that stuff forward and created a
 nationwide reaction.
 

 
 People are confused about what acceptance really means. I think we are
 stuck with the idea that acceptance means having to accept all that
 happened; but that’s not the case. We can’t change the past – it
 happened the way it happened. We can change our reaction to it, and how
 it lives in us today. I can remain the victim of another person forever,
 or forgiveness and letting go can help me take back my power.
 The other person could go to jail, but that does not heal my trauma.
 Forgiveness does. Forgiveness is not for the weak; it’s for the strong.
 For Indigenous people, it is a part of who we are. The word for
 forgiveness in our language is so vast. It’s an experience and a gift
 you give yourself. It has nothing to do with the other person.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <div class="block-image">
 <figure>
 <img
 alt="reconciliation2"
 class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/reconciliation2_700x394_3375ff5a96.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T07:39:56.110Z"
 />
 </figure>
 </div>

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 Returning to Spirit, using visual and experiential processes, offers a
 gentle way of teaching; yet it’s very disruptive, it wakes people up.
 It’s like throwing a bucket of cold water on their faces.
 

 
 I went to Rome and heard the Pope’s apology. Great! However, no apology
 by the Pope or the government can take away the harm, and I think that
 is what people fail to recognize.&nbsp;
 

 
 My favorite part of the Rome visit was being able to do pipe ceremonies
 alongside my brother Friar Francois Paradis at the General House of the
 Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and the genuine interest it
 sparked to know and understand us. That is an experience so many who
 came before me never had. They made sacrifices, they experienced pain,
 some never came home. I believe that the ancestors want reconciliation
 for me; maybe as I heal, they are healing too. The best way I see to
 honor them is Mino-Bimaadiziwin (holistic health), and to pass
 that legacy of well-being on to my children and grandchildren.
 

 
 Hatred and resentment are passed from generation to generation. There
 are people who never went to residential schools but are walking around
 like it happened to them, carrying and perpetuating the anger and
 resentment. Unfortunately, they do it at the cost of their own peace. I
 don’t want to pass that stuff on to my son.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 <h4 class="has-text-align-center block-heading">
 We can’t change the past – it happened the way it happened.
 We can change our reaction to it, and how it lives in us
 today.
 </h4>

 <hr />

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 
 For the last 20 years, we’ve been trying to reconcile in a vacuum,
 trying to heal without the other, and we need both. That’s what’s unique
 about our process. At Returning to Spirit, we are working with
 Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Each is different. And there are
 biases in judgment and assumptions on both sides.&nbsp;
 

 
 We give them the tools to be able to set their biases aside for long
 enough to have a conversation. This is a tool for reconciling all
 relationships.&nbsp;
 

 
 As I let go, as I continue creating peace for myself, I believe that my
 ancestors are also healing on the other side. It is beautiful that I’m
 living at a time in history where this is actually possible.
 

 
 There are a lot of people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who are
 frustrated because the idea of reconciliation feels like a never-ending
 cycle. So how do we move forward? By everybody recognizing that this is
 something we live with, that we need to do our own work rather than
 expecting other people to make it okay. The government can’t do it for
 us.
 

 
 How do we address generational trauma? By doing our own work. We’re part
 of it all. It doesn’t matter what country you go to, every single
 Indigenous culture has a creation story. What runs through all those
 stories is that we are a part of creation, and we are made up of
 everything. Our bodies are 70% water, and our voices are part of the
 wind. How we speak, and how we take care of our possessions, we must
 take care of our wind.
 

 
 I love the word Namwayut, which means we are all one.2
 

 
 Throughout my journey, I have collected many moments of powerful
 reconciliation. No two have been the same, and the people are as diverse
 as the experience. I’ve come to see that there are many forms of
 reconciliation – it’s not just one way. However, the feeling of
 reconciliation in my spirit, is the same,
 despite the road traveled. It makes me feel good, and it makes me feel
 alive.
 

 <hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <hr />

 
 1The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the
 largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, began to be
 implemented in 2007. One of the elements of the agreement was the
 establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to
 facilitate reconciliation among former students, their families, their
 communities, and all Canadians.
 

 
 2Namwayut–We Are All One is the title of a book
 by Chief Robert Joseph

We cannot do reconciliation, we must be reconciliation

Liu perceives the concentration, simplicity, peace and sharpness that results from both calligraphy and meditation, which take daily practice to master the essence until the mind can freely express through the pen. He has learned that perseverance is very important.

Liu Janmin.jpg

Liu Janmin

<h4>LIU JIANMIN is a Heartfulness practitioner and calligrapher. He has taken a quote of FEI XIAO TONG (1910-2005), one of the founders of Chinese sociology and anthropology: “Be inspired by others and cherish your value. Share the fruits then always endeavor for harmony.” Liu has written the quote in three running calligraphy images.</h4>&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/beauty_of_nature_spirituality2_8a08531c4c.jpg"></figure>I have practiced&nbsp;Heartfulness Meditation for ten years. My experience with the practice went&nbsp;from curiosity and ignorance to gradual&nbsp;acceptance, and then to&nbsp;becoming a part of&nbsp;my life. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;In the process, I found that perseverance is very important. I can clearly perceive my concentration, simplicity, peace, and&nbsp;awareness. It is similar with&nbsp;the&nbsp;calligraphy practice, which takes serious daily practice to master&nbsp;the essence&nbsp;until the mind can freely be expressed with a pen.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/beauty_of_nature_spirituality3_75672c817e.jpg"></figure><h4>Running script</h4>Calligraphy is&nbsp;an ability&nbsp;to express the beauty of nature and the beauty of human spirituality.&nbsp;It stresses the overall&nbsp;harmony between words and lines.&nbsp;Practicing calligraphy&nbsp;can&nbsp;help to achieve relaxation and&nbsp;to&nbsp;repel outside disturbances.Chinese script generally comes in five styles:&nbsp;Seal script,&nbsp;篆书 Official script,&nbsp;隶书 Regular script,&nbsp;楷书 Running script,&nbsp;行书 Cursive script,&nbsp;草书 This work is running script.&nbsp;Its strokes are smooth, the lines are varied, and the form is concise.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/beauty_of_nature_spirituality4_e6f72dbd13.jpg"></figure>

The beauty of nature and spirituality

Liz is a happy human being living in Kanha Shanti Vanam. She is blessed with a son and daughter and four beloved grandchildren in Australia. She is the global Director of Heartful Communication and has been a certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication for over 20 years.

Liz Kingsnorth.jpg

Liz Kingsnorth

<h4>LIZ KINGSNORTH, Director of the Heartful Communication program, shares 10 tips we can apply to improve our relationships with others at home, at work and with friends, all by improving the way we communicate.&nbsp;</h4>&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_1_e2968c1dd7.jpg" alt="10tips-1.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_1_e2968c1dd7.jpg 224w," sizes="100vw"><h4>1. Keep an intention for connection.</h4>Nurture your intention: that you want to create and sustain, a respectful and compassionate quality of connection—whatever happens! Trust that this intention for connection is more important and more nourishing than “winning” or “being right,” or even just “having your say.” Connecting heartfully with others is one of the deepest of human needs.Having a quality of connection means that you bring yourself fully present and try to keep your heart open to what is going on for the other person—however they might express themselves—plus you keep an awareness of what is alive within yourself in each moment. In this way you can be in touch with what matters to the other and to yourself. &nbsp;To achieve this, learning to pause often is invaluable!When the connection is sustained, there is a strong possibility that both of you will be able to express yourselves, plus be heard and understood. .<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_2_1b21824ce8.jpg" alt="10tips-2.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_2_1b21824ce8.jpg 146w," sizes="100vw"><h4>2. Listen twice as much as you speak! &nbsp;&nbsp;</h4>You have two ears and one mouth—an effective reminder! Listening, truly listening, is one key to a healthy relationship. You may only be half listening, just waiting for your chance to speak, wanting to make your point, disagree, or tell your story. When your attention is with your own thoughts, you are not listening. Listening means to sense into the world of the other person, to intend to understand their perspective and needs, even if you disagree with what they are saying.<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_3_2611d0b901.jpg" alt="10tips-3.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_3_2611d0b901.jpg 224w," sizes="100vw"><h4>3. Understand the other person first.</h4>“Seek first to understand before you are understood,” said Stephen Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. When the other person feels you are understanding them, they are far more likely to be open to understanding you. Being willing to understand the other person first involves acceptance, generosity, respect, self-control, patience, and being curious instead of furious about how they are different from you!When someone receives respect and empathy, then a wish to cooperate and contribute is free to emerge. In this approach, we believe that generosity, and a desire to cooperate and contribute, are natural human states. Not habitual, but natural. When people don’t receive attention and empathy, they may continue struggling to be heard and understood, becoming increasingly insistent or aggressive. Alternatively, they may shut down, feeling resentful and unwilling to interact further. Remember, empathy is not agreement—you can empathize with someone with whom you profoundly disagree, if you are willing!<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_4_9751f4cdb2.jpg" alt="10tips-4.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_4_9751f4cdb2.jpg 224w," sizes="100vw"><h4>4. Develop awareness of underlying needs and values.</h4>One way of understanding human behavior is to be aware that everything people say and do is an expression of underlying needs, longings, or values. We can learn to tune in, identify, and “hear” these needs, even when they are not directly expressed. Because all human beings share these needs, they are our magic key to unlocking mutual understanding.&nbsp;For example, if someone says, “You are so selfish, you never do anything to help at home,” they are indirectly expressing a longing for consideration and support, but it comes out as blame and judgment. If you can empathize rather than react, you might say, “Are you upset and angry because you really need consideration and support?” This type of response will connect, and the person will start to feel understood.<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_5_93824321a1.jpg" alt="10tips-5.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_5_93824321a1.jpg 144w," sizes="100vw"><h4>5. Begin with empathy.</h4>Refrain from:<ul><li>Immediately telling your own similar story,&nbsp;</li><li>Interrogating with a lot of data-type questions,&nbsp;</li><li>Interpreting the other’s experience,&nbsp;</li><li>Giving advice,&nbsp;</li><li>One-upmanship, e.g., “If you think that’s bad wait till you hear about what happened to me!” &nbsp;</li><li>Dismissing the person’s feelings, e.g., “Oh, don’t be angry,”&nbsp;</li><li>Compensating and minimizing the person’s experience, e.g. “At least…” and &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Telling the person that this experience is actually good for them!</li></ul>Generally people appreciate receiving empathy before anything else. The above responses may have their place later on in a conversation—it is often a matter of being sensitive to when!<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;"><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_6_4102284397.jpg" alt="10tips-6.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_6_4102284397.jpg 224w," sizes="100vw"></h4><h4>6. Link your feelings to your needs or values, and take responsibility for them.</h4>What someone else says or does is not the cause for how you feel, it is the trigger. Your feelings are linked to underlying needs or values that are stimulated by what’s happening. For example, you might get angry that someone does not do what they say they are going to do, so you tell them, “You make me so angry, you are so unreliable!” This inflammatory accusation could be rephrased by owning that your anger comes from your own unfulfilled wish or value, e.g., “I feel really frustrated because it’s important to me that we keep to agreements that we’ve made.”<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_7_8bd8cf9604.jpg" alt="10tips-7.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_7_8bd8cf9604.jpg 158w," sizes="100vw"><h4>7. Make requests that are doable, specific, and positive, linked to your need.</h4>Having expressed what is important to you (your need or value), you can make a request that would go one step toward fulfilling that need. Making specific requests allows you to move out of just complaining. It’s a gateway to something changing. You may be asking things of others that are simply too vague, too big, or are expressed as a request to stop doing something, rather than a request about what you would positively like to happen. For example, “Stop making so much noise,” or “Please be more considerate,” are not clear, and could be interpreted in various ways. In contrast, “When you are playing video games, please would you use headphones?” is specific and doable.<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_8_a78880407a.jpg" alt="10tips-8.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_8_a78880407a.jpg 224w," sizes="100vw"><h4>8. Describe what’s happened in observation language &nbsp; &nbsp;</h4>When you are upset, angry, scared, or worried, you may lapse into descriptions of what is triggering you, in language full of judgment, blame, or interpretation, for example, “You are always attacking me,” “He doesn’t care at all about us,” “You’re too lazy,” etc. If you can describe what you are seeing and hearing in a neutral, factual way, free of judgments (as a video camera would record), there’s a good chance the other person can agree with this initial description. Then the interaction can move to aspects that will make the difference, such as sharing of feelings, needs, and requests. “That’s a really stupid idea,” might be rephrased as, “When you suggest that we all go to a movie that finishes at midnight (observation language), I’m worried (feeling) because it’s important that the kids get a full night’s sleep (need). How about we go to the 2 p.m. show instead (specific request)?”<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_9_31f1e2a722.jpg" alt="10tips-9.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_9_31f1e2a722.jpg 126w," sizes="100vw"><h4>9. Be willing to hear “No!”</h4>Even these guidelines are not a magic wand. Your carefully expressed requests might still elicit a “No” from the other person. If this upsets you, it is useful to reflect if your request was actually a demand that the person should fulfill! You have a choice about how you hear that “No.” You could hear it simply as an expression that something else is important to the other person, i.e., they have a different need or value alive in this moment. If you take time to find this out, you may realize that their “No” is actually a request for something else to happen. And then you are into the dance of negotiation! &nbsp;“No” may not be as threatening as you might imagine!<hr><img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/10tips_10_cf237743d2.jpg" alt="10tips-10.jpg" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_10tips_10_cf237743d2.jpg 171w," sizes="100vw"><h4>10. Remember how much you are communicating without words.</h4>What is in your heart and mind, your inner condition and attitude, the energies being expressed through your body, your facial expressions, the tone of your voice… all these elements are communicating in ways that are intuitively picked up and understood by others. Are your words in alignment with these subtler elements? You are manifesting your consciousness at every moment. If you want connection, understanding, and harmony in your relationships, you can work on nourishing those aspects deeply within ourselves.Then our communication may become truly communion.<h4>Useful references:</h4>Heartful Communication: <a href="https://heartfulness.org/hc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://heartfulness.org/hc/</a> Nonviolent Communication™ – a Language of Life, by Marshall Rosenberg <a href="//www.cnvc.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.cnvc.org</a> <a href="//www.nvctraining.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.nvctraining.com</a><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by LAKSHMI GADDAM</h4><hr>&nbsp;

10 tips for effective communication

<h4>In this 3-part series, LIZ KINGSNORTH introduces the value of <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/a-framework-for-effective-listening" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">effective communication</a>, the basic principles of Heartful Communication, and how it can guide our understanding of our personal feelings and needs, and the feelings and needs of others, ultimately leading to a more consistent state of harmony. In part 3, Liz shares how listening can be a powerful and empathetic tool of communication.</h4><hr><h3 style="text-align:center;">HEARTFUL COMMUNICATION – PART 3</h3><hr>We can listen in a range of ways. We can listen in attentive silence, offering our alert presence, communicating acceptance, respect or care, without words. Or we might need to listen for factual information – for example in a work meeting – and then we can check back with the speaker if what we have picked up is accurate.Perspective taking is another way to listen. Paying attention and acknowledging someone’s perspective or opinion, particularly when it is very different from our own, requires us to be centered and to let go of any urge to persuade them they are wrong! If our intention is connection not correction, we first listen for their way of seeing things and then we may reflect back to them our understanding of their perspective. “So, your view is that vaccination should be compulsory for everyone, is that right?” Remember, you don’t need to agree with their perspective, but when someone feels accurately heard, not immediately argued with, not judged, they are much more likely to be open to hearing your perspective also.Another level is to listen for how a person is feeling, and we can offer back what we sense. For example, someone might say, “My husband is never at home. He’s married to his job!” Even though feelings are not explicitly named here, we can sense that this person is in pain about her situation, that she has feelings of frustration and anger, perhaps loneliness, or even despair. If we gently respond to this outburst by asking if she is feeling a bit hopeless and alone, she may experience relief from being heard; here is someone really trying to understand her experience.What matters is that we don’t fall into the habit of immediately trying to fix things or make light of the situation. Habitual responses might be:To try to console, for example, “Never mind, at least he does come home!”To give immediate advice, for example, “Why don’t you complain to his boss?”Very commonly, to tell our own similar story, for example, “Oh, my husband’s just the same,” and off we go with our own story, often with a sort of one-upmanship, like our situation is even more horrible than theirs!I call these kinds of responses “circuit breakers,” because they can so quickly break the flow of connection and cut across the person’s need to express themselves. We jump in and reply with what comes instantly into our mind. Stephen Covey wrote, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” It’s not that we should eliminate these responses altogether, as at times they may be what someone wants, but often not as a first reaction. It can be an issue of timing, being sensitive to their need to vent without interruption.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Heartful_Communication_3_2_91c91b2886.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T10:33:53.565Z" alt="Heartful-Communication-3-2"><hr>Take a moment now and reflect on the ways you commonly respond: “Do I tend to immediately give advice, for example? Or perhaps start telling my own experience?”You might also reflect on how you feel when someone tries to immediately fix things, when you want to simply share something and be heard?What we are often yearning for from our listener is empathy, that they are willing to imagine our world, to gently step into our unique experience and affirm it. Heartful Communication teaches us to listen so carefully that we can hear or sense what someone may be longing for, as well as their feelings, even when they don’t articulate them clearly. So, an empathic response to, “My husband is never at home. He’s married to his job!” might sound like, “I guess you’re feeling really fed up and alone, and you would love to have more quality time together with your husband.” We tune into her longing for companionship, even though it is being expressed indirectly as an exasperated complaint.When people receive empathy in this way, they often feel relief, an easing of pressure. Their need to be heard and understood is met. It’s nourishing. It’s one of the most transformative aspects of communication that we can develop.Being able to stay calm and listen under pressure is more challenging. Yet, if we can do it, if we can empathize with someone who is angry with us, hostility can change to harmony in a remarkably quick time. I remember one time when I was living in a house with no access to the backyard except through my neighbor’s garden. I was doing major renovation work and my neighbor had agreed to allow the workmen to come through his garden with their heavy loads to access my yard.<hr><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Learning new habits of listening&nbsp; instead of defending ourselves.&nbsp; Becoming aware when we are triggered and then being able to respond gently.&nbsp; These things can liberate us from the prison of judgment&nbsp; and reactivity.</h4><hr><hr>We were a couple of weeks into the project with a lot more to be done, when one morning he bolted the gate between our gardens and piled up furniture behind it. Clearly, he had decided to put a stop to the work. If the gate stayed locked, that would be the end of my garden renovation. I needed to go and listen to this man.I began quietly, using neutral observation: “Hello John, I see the gate is locked today.” He immediately exploded, shouting, “You think you can just go on like this every day with these idiots invading my garden like it’s a public road!”I took a deep breath and listened for his feelings and what his needs were in this moment, and then I replied, “Are you really angry because you want your privacy respected”? “Yes!” he roared, “I don’t know when this damned work is going to be over. I’ve had enough!”Although I was alarmed, I remembered that he was angry because he had valid unmet needs, so I responded, “Right, it’s important that you know what the timeframe is for completing.” “Of course!” he said. “And see that shed? That’s my home office with all my files and my computer inside!” I replied, “Oh wow, I can see why you’re worried about security and want to be sure your stuff is safe.”Other things were upsetting him: “And see those plants – that is salad! Your buffalos are trampling over everything!” “I’m really sorry,” I said. “It matters that they take care and keep to the path.” There were a couple more of these interchanges with him expressing what he was angry about and me listening and doing my best to reflect back to him my understanding of his feelings and needs. I could see him becoming calmer. Then suddenly, to my surprise, he said, “Well, all right, I can see you have to get the work done. I’ll open the gate when they come!”I was taken aback at how fast things had shifted. I hadn’t protested or defended my situation. The whole thing took about ten minutes. I quickly thanked him and assured him we would talk with the workmen about his concerns. The project was completed amicably. This is the power of focused, empathic listening that’s possible even under pressure.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Heartful_Communication_3_3_faaf7d6a43.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T10:34:55.487Z" alt="Heartful-Communication-3-3"><hr>Learning new habits of listening instead of defending ourselves. Becoming aware when we are triggered and then being able to respond gently. These things can liberate us from the prison of judgment and reactivity. As Viktor Frankl suggests, “There is a space between the stimulus and the response. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” I have found that this can be achieved more easily when we have a practice of meditation that helps us create such spaces, bringing increasing calmness and balance inside. This is a journey where we endeavor to transcend our conditioning and re weave a web of generous, warm relatedness, where the well-being of each one, and all of us together, matters more than pursuing our individual wellbeing. Here we go beyond our separate identities toward a shared sense of oneness, as an entire human family, in which each one flourishes and can contribute to the well-being of all.<hr>&nbsp;

Listening with the intent to understand

<h4>LIZ KINGSNORTH introduces Marshall Rosenberg’s practical approach of Nonviolent Communication, and how it is integrating with Heartfulness into Heartful Communication.</h4><hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">“Make sure that your acts and your words&nbsp; reflect the work being done in your heart.”&nbsp; —Babuji</h5><hr>Tensions were high during a 3-day peace-building dialogue between community leaders from Palestine and Israel. My cofacilitator and I were worried. The hope and determination that people had arrived with was under threat from divisions, frustrated efforts, and pain. The breakthrough came when we asked participants to simply walk along the beach with someone from the other community. As the pairs set off, they walked with distance between them. An hour and a half later they returned. Many were visibly different, a kind of serenity and fragility in their open faces. There was an air of gentle connection, a sense that people had truly met each other. Many described the powerful impact of their walks together. “I will see things differently now,” said one. They had uncovered their common humanity, shared that they had the same needs – to give their children a good education, to celebrate their culture, to live in safety, and so on. From that moment, I was able to do what I was there to do: offer the perspective and skills of Nonviolent Communication to support their ongoing dialogue and projects.When I first came across the approach called Nonviolent Communication, which is the one of the key components of Heartful Communication, I realized it was transformative. Only with time and experience, I began to understand how profound it is as a way of being, a way to understand human behavior. It helps us experience the one-ness of humanity in a tangible way … in each moment, every day.NVC originated through Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, who passed away in 2015. He said, “The purpose of Nonviolent Communication is to help you to do what you already know how to do … to connect in a way that makes natural giving possible. To stay with that quality of giving, moment by moment, in every contact we have. But it’s easy to lose that connection. In spite of how precious it is, we forget. And instead, we play the game of ‘Who’s right!’ It’s a game where everybody loses.” We want to be in tune with our true, giving nature, but we have forgotten how. We’ve lost our way. Deep down we long to find a way to align our thoughts, words and actions with the loving, spiritual beings we are at our core. When we experience this alignment, we breathe freely. We remember. We feel a sense of Home. NVC makes the alignment of our inner and outer beings possible by focusing on what is alive in the heart. Instead of habitual judging and blaming, learned from the prevailing culture, we look for the fundamental human motivators that manifest in the heart. They can be called longings, yearnings, aspirations, values or universal human needs – things like respect, acceptance, security, contributing to others. NVC suggests that everything anyone says or does is an attempt to fulfill one or another of these life affirming human needs. When we learn to focus on and validate the needs that underlie behavior, we find a way to connect with a person, even when they are saying or doing things we don’t like. For example, instead of judging a child as “bad” for not telling the truth, we see they may need to protect themselves. Perhaps in the past they experienced punishment for being honest and owning up to taking or breaking something. We can understand the child’s need for self-protection, because we too experience that need, in situations we feel to be physically or emotionally threatening. Or, as we sense what needs may be unconsciously being met in someone we call a “bully,” we may discover new compassion growing within us. They may have experienced fear, disapproval and powerlessness in early life, been humiliated or isolated. Longings for recognition, esteem and being powerful, are manifesting in ways that violate the safety and well-being of others. Recognizing their unfulfilled needs can lead us to look for more fitting, healing ways to help restore the bully to their true nature. We come to realize that anger and violence – whether physical, psychological or emotional, spoken or unspoken – are the tragic expressions of unfulfilled needs.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartful_communication2_650af53c1a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T12:13:02.368Z" alt="HEARTFUL-communication">NVC offers a radical listening and empathic responding process that can melt conflict in a surprisingly short time. I remember a neighbor who was furious with me because my workmen were trampling through his garden. He blocked the gate and refused to let them through. When he yelled, “Your guys are wrecking my garden! How long am I supposed to put up with these idiots?” I responded, “I can see you’ve put a lot of effort into your garden. Are you furious because you want it respected? And you’d like a timeframe for when this will be over?” He continued with his angry accusations but it took only 5 minutes of me listening to him without defending, each time empathizing with his needs in the same manner, before he softened and opened the gate. Our relationship was preserved.NVC is a universal process that can be learned by all kinds of people, of all ages and in all kinds of cultures. I recall a team project with prison guards in Scotland that I found particularly moving. These were tough guys, mostly ex-military, allergic to feelings, keeping themselves safe through physical strength and hard-hitting humor. Our job was to teach them deep listening, conflict management, facilitation and counseling skills! At first it was difficult. Their armor seemed impenetrable and we were perceived as coming from another planet. Listening to their stories, having sincere respect and willingness to try to understand their dangerous world, finally turned the key. I will always remember sitting in a circle with them one year on. One man had tears in his eyes as he expressed his sadness and despair: “There is no room for compassion in this work.” No one joked, all were quiet, nodding their agreement. In awe I reflected on how far these men had come. Now they valued self-awareness, feelings, trust, openness. They knew how to listen. They could connect to the needs of the prisoners and each other. They had self-respect. They had come home to their hearts. One said, “I am a much better man now, I feel like myself.” Subsequently they won an award for teaching this to others, and guards who refused to take part were called “dinosaurs”!Rosenberg saw the crucial role that language plays in contributing to either harmony or conflict. We think in language. Language shapes our perception, creates our “reality.” Hafiz, the 14th century Persian mystic said, “What we speak becomes the house we live in.” Judgments, threats, demands, interpretations, separate us from our hearts and from each other. NVC offers us a clear structure and tools for expressing ourselves without these habitual, alienating forms of language (See <a href="https://baynvc.org/basics-of-nonviolent-communication/">https://baynvc.org/basics-of-nonviolent-communication/</a> ).It can readily be taught to children as well as adults – children are naturals!Daaji has said, “NVC goes ‘hand-in-glove’ with Heartfulness.” Both are heart-centered approaches enabling us to become more loving, purer human beings. As we integrate NVC into Heartfulness, a process is emerging called Heartful Communication. Eventually, with a spiritual practice and perspective, we may hope to free ourselves of having needs. But at the moment we are imperfect human beings. Needs are there, at our core, with differing intensities for each of us. As we evolve spiritually, our needs also evolve. A wish for recognition may change to a longing for humility to be an anonymous server. A need for social belonging may transmute to a yearning for merging with the divine.The 13th century Sufi mystic, Rumi, expresses the condition that can blossom when we move out of fear-based blame and judgment, threat, demand, winning and losing, reward and punishment; when we transform our “diagnoses,” i.e. thinking and communicating in terms of what is “right” and “wrong” with us.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartful_communication3_f0acd1087b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T12:14:21.132Z" alt="heartful-communication">“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,&nbsp; there is a field. I’ll meet you there.&nbsp; When the soul lies down in that grass,&nbsp; the world is too full to talk about.&nbsp; Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense.”&nbsp;When we meet in Rumi’s field, it will enrich and unite us all.&nbsp;<hr> Learn Heartful Communication:&nbsp;Visit <a href="http://www.heartfulcommunication.org">www.heartfulcommunication.org</a>Learn NVC:Find a training: <a href="http://www.cnvc.org">www.cnvc.org</a>&nbsp; 30-day free online course and NVC resources library: <a href="http://www.nvctraining.com">www.nvctraining.com</a>&nbsp; Facebook pages list events, e.g. NVC India; Bay Area Nonviolent Communication&nbsp; NVC with children: Google searchBooks:Nonviolent Communication – A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg&nbsp; Respectful Parents Respectful Kids by Hart and Hodson&nbsp; Being Genuine by Thomas D’Ansembourg&nbsp; Words that Work in Business by Ike Lasater&nbsp;YouTube videos:Marshall Rosenberg teaching NVC<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by LIZ KINGSNORTH Illustrations by JASMEE RATHOD</h4><hr>

Heartful communication

<h4>&nbsp;</h4>In this 3-part series, LIZ KINGSNORTH introduces the basic principles of Heartful Communication, and how it guides our understanding of our personal feelings and the feelings of others, ultimately leading to a more consistent state of harmony. In part 1, she focuses on the importance of the quality of communication.&nbsp;<hr>These are extraordinary times. So much of what we call our “normal life” has been thrown up in the air like pieces of a puzzle, and the pieces are landing – if at all they do land – in a different pattern, which may not be recognizable. Amidst this uncertainty and turmoil, we find our relationships under greater pressure. There seems to be conflict and misunderstanding at all levels, within ourselves, between family members, at work, within our countries, and between nations.Many of us are longing to have more harmonious relationships and to communicate more effectively. At a deeper level, we want to interact in a way that is in alignment with our core selves, with the best versions of ourselves. I hear people saying things like, “I want to feel at peace at the end of the day.” No one wants the heaviness that can result from misunderstandings and disagreement. I’m sure that we all prefer to manage interactions with care; we want to listen well, to speak kindly, but we struggle to achieve this consistently. Heartful Communication sets out to meet this need. After a workshop, one woman wrote simply, “I’ve always known how I want to live my life and now I have the tools to do it.”This is not just a set of techniques or a toolkit, however; it’s an awareness and a way of being. It weaves together a heart-centered approach to living, with practical ways to manifest this in our daily interactions. Techniques and wisdom from the Heartfulness practices and philosophy are interwoven with a process called Nonviolent Communication, which was developed by Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg. Both approaches focus on the heart, and honor our humanness, recognizing that we are imperfect beings with shared yearnings and shared vulnerabilities.So how would it be if we used these very yearnings and vulnerabilities as a valuable, alive way to realize the power of unity and what we have in common, rather than as evidence of our weakness or collective failure as a species? This lived experience of togetherness is something that Heartful Communication offers.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Communication2_4f8750a454.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T10:25:02.583Z" alt=""><hr>We always communicate from our current level of awareness, so the more we can raise our awareness and refine our inner states, the more likely it is that our communication will be refined. The more our hearts are open and nurtured, the more compassion and authenticity will be infusing our connections with others and with ourselves. So meditation, with its power to raise our awareness and to connect us with our deepest center, holds a key to helping us develop a more balanced, loving way of living and relating.Yet, even with the best intentions, the noblest ideals and values, we mess up. We say things we regret, we trigger hurt in others, and often we don’t know how it happened. We misunderstand and we are misunderstood. We can be our own worst enemy, especially in our closest relationships. Isn’t this where the toughest tests often arise?Let’s remind ourselves that we are products of our cultural conditioning. Most of us are educated from birth to compete, to compare, to judge, to think in terms of who is right and who is wrong, who is better or worse, what is normal behavior and what is abnormal. This has led us into a fractured culture where blaming and shaming are the norm. It manifests in our day-to-day communications, in how we raise our children, in our education systems, our businesses, and our politics. Instead of wanting to CONNECT we want to CORRECT. As Marshall Rosenberg says, we are habitually playing the game of “Who is right?”Can you take a moment to reflect: When have you wanted to be right recently? When have you insisted on something, or tried to prove a point, perhaps? And if you won that round of the game and proved yourself to be right, how do you suppose the other person felt? And how did you feel deep down? Was it really satisfying to have won a point – perhaps at the cost of the other person feeling embarrassed, small or resentful? Did you win the argument but damage the relationship? Is winning, being right, actually worth it?This way of thinking and conditioning starts early in our lives. I’d like to share a story, told by a friend about her daughter in primary school. The teacher organized a running race and told the children that whoever won should grab as many chocolates as possible from the bowl. My friend’s daughter won the race but took only one chocolate. She was then scolded by the teacher for being disobedient – she had been told to grab lots of sweets and didn’t. When the distressed child returned home and was asked by her mother what happened, she cried, “If I had taken lots of chocolates, there wouldn’t have been enough for everyone.” Her natural inclination was to share, to think of others, but here she was being “educated” out of her natural way of being into winning at the expense of others.<hr><hr>My individual existence rests in all of humanity.&nbsp; Whatever I may think of the human race,&nbsp; I am inextricably a part of it! Each of us can&nbsp; and does make a difference to the whole,&nbsp; however small, in how we live each moment.<hr><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Communication3_63280b7889.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T10:27:05.130Z" alt=""><hr>What is it that we reward? How do we respond to mistakes? I was very inspired when I first heard about African communities that are rooted in the strength of Interdependence rather than Independence – the philosophy of Ubuntu. One Ubuntu practice that especially moves me is this: When someone makes a serious mistake, what we would probably call a crime in our society, that person sits surrounded by their community, and for two days everyone reminds him or her of all the good, kind things they have done! The idea is that the person has temporarily forgotten their true nature, so the others remind them of who they really are. Having been deeply affirmed and restored through this expression of acceptance, love, and trust, that person is extremely unlikely to repeat the mistake.This is a philosophy that has redemption at its core. Isn’t the possibility of redemption central to a humane society? How radically different this is from our idea that shame and punishment will reform us, starting with young children, all the way through to our criminal justice system. If I shame someone, whether through speech or action, am I not inevitably shaming myself ?My individual existence rests in all of humanity. Whatever I may think of the human race, I am inextricably a part of it! Each of us can and does make a difference to the whole, however small, in how we live each moment. For example, we cannot know what the extended effects of kindness might be. I remember one day, driving on a highway and stopping at a toll to pay my fee. To my surprise the toll attendant told me that the person in the car in front of me had paid for me! Apparently it was Random Acts of Kindness Day, which I wasn’t aware of, and this gesture of drivers paying for those behind them in the queue had been going on for an hour or so. In delight, I paid the toll fee for the car behind me, and I heard later that this chain of paying for another continued unbroken for most of the day. I’m sure that this repeated small gesture, this random act of kindness, will have generated smiles and opened hundreds of hearts that day, perhaps changing someone’s dark mood, with the result that they treated people differently. We don’t know, but we do know that we enjoy experiences that connect us. How we communicate can contribute to the warmth of connection and unity, or to the chill of separation. It can contribute to our evolution or to our diminishment.<hr>To be continued.<hr><hr><h4>Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>

Communication: Bridging the Gap - Part 1

In this 3-part series, LIZ KINGSNORTH introduces the importance of effective communication, some principles of Heartful Communication, and how we can better understand our personal feelings and longings, and the feelings and longings of others. In Part 2, Liz explores why we think and behave the way we do, giving examples of how our communication will improve as a result of this understanding.<hr><h3>What are our feelings telling us?</h3><hr>Marshall Rosenberg suggests that underlying all our actions, words, and choices, are the human “needs,” aspirations, and longings that we want fulfilled. They are the motivators for our behavior. “Needs” may include safety, justice, belonging, to be heard, to have a sense of self-worth, to have purpose or meaning, to be accepted, to learn, to contribute, to have fun, to have peace. We do what we do and say what we say in order to try to meet a particular need. These needs are life-serving; in their essence, they positively contribute to life. Some needs are easy to understand, for example, going for a promotion to ensure security for the family, spending time on social media to meet a need for connection, complaining about loud music because of a need for peace to relax. Other behaviors are not so easy to understand, for example, not telling the truth. What needs might underlie this choice? I imagine each of us has said things at times that were not true, perhaps because we wanted to protect someone from hurt, or protect ourselves from criticism. Our motivation is to protect. If a child denies breaking a window when we know they broke it, our first reaction might be to scold them for not telling the truth. We might brand the child as a liar and thereafter doubt their word. If we feel into the child’s need underlying their denial, is it not self-protection? That is a need we all share. Perhaps they were punished in the past when they owned up to a mistake, so they have learned it’s not safe to tell the truth in such circumstances.So, how might we support a child to be honest, other than by punishing them when they lie? Whenever they acknowledge they have made a mistake – “Yes I broke this,” “Yes it was me who ate Mum’s chocolate, ” – can we welcome their honesty, affirm how we all mess up at times, and then together think through how the mistake could be sorted out? In other words, replace the use of fear with trust, with respect, with love.So here’s a key shift in our awareness – from criticizing a person’s behavior to trying to understand the underlying need behind their words and actions. What are the needs and values that are driving them? This awareness opens our hearts and enables us to realize our connectedness. It’s a choice. Awareness brings choice. This choice can be liberating for us and for those with whom we are relating.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartful_communication_part2_2_a8519c1394.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T03:22:02.119Z" alt=""><hr>Let’s take an everyday example of a family argument between a parent and their teenage child. The parent is frustrated by the teenager constantly being on their mobile phone with friends, even during mealtimes and late into the night, so they forcibly remove the phone. The teenager disappears into their room in a rage and refuses to come out. There’s a major stand-off. What each of them say and do to express their needs, in other words the strategies that they use, infuriate the other.Strategies are what we want; needs are why we want it. The parent has needs for the teenager to be healthy, and to participate in the togetherness of family life. The teen has needs for connection and friendship with their peers – to belong. As a young adult, they also value autonomy and the independence to make their own choices.The conflict lies at the level of the words and actions, the strategies, not at the level of the underlying needs. These are needs we all understand and experience; they are shared by all human beings – not necessarily at the same time, and not necessarily with the same intensity, but we can relate to them once we become aware of them. The parent understands their child’s needs for connection and autonomy, and the teen understands their parent’s wish for health and togetherness. In fact, the need for connection is common to both.The solution to this conflict, and any conflict, lies in recognizing and respecting the underlying needs, then looking for different strategies, new creative ways forward, where everyone’s needs are taken into account. It is not A’s way or B’s way, but a third way. This is why families all over the world endeavor to come up with agreements about phones that everyone feels okay with.<hr><hr><h5>The solution to this conflict,&nbsp; and any conflict, lies in recognizing&nbsp; and respecting the underlying needs,&nbsp; then looking for different strategies,&nbsp; new creative ways forward,&nbsp; where everyone’s needs are taken into account.</h5><hr><hr>To help us understand this concept of underlying needs as motivators for everything we say and do, let’s take a few examples:<ol><li>Why have you chosen to read this article? What needs are you hoping to meet?</li><li>If you tell your partner how much you enjoy their cooking, what needs are you fulfilling?&nbsp; When we express appreciation to another, isn’t this fulfilling our need, our wish, to contribute to someone else’s happiness? While we may also have an agenda of making sure we get dinner tomorrow too, I’m convinced that wanting to contribute to the well-being of others is one of the deepest human needs.</li><li>What might be the needs underlying bullying behavior?</li></ol>Do you sense that the person may have poor self-esteem and want to be seen as powerful, to feel that they are someone? Bullies have usually been bullied themselves and have felt the helplessness that turns to anger. So may they have a need for recognition or respect? There could be a wide range of needs, and often they are not conscious. Remember we don’t have to like or agree with certain behaviors in order to try to understand them more deeply.Marshall Rosenberg offers us this thought: “Every criticism, judgment and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.” It’s tragic because those forms of expression hurt others and hurt our own hearts. Learning to hear the unmet needs behind criticism or anger – whether coming from someone else or from inside us – will support a new understanding.Deep attentive listening is a cornerstone of Heartful Communication. Often we want to be listened to more than we want to listen! In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey offers us a habit that can transform our interactions: “Seek to understand before you are understood.” If we have an intention to really listen and understand another person first, this creates a warm connection and opens the field between us for dialogue. Any communication starts with our intention. In Heartful Communication, our intention is to connect: with the Source, with our own heart, and with the heart of another person – what matters to them in this moment? So we listen.<hr>To be continued.<hr><hr><h4>Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>

Heartful communication - part 2

Llewellyn is the founder of The Golden Sufi Center. Author of several books, he has specialized in the area of dream work, integrating the ancient Sufi approach with modern psychology. Since 2000 his focus has been on spiritual responsibility in our present era and awakening the global consciousness of oneness. He has written about the feminine, the world soul and spiritual ecology. He has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on SuperSoul Sunday, and featured on the Global Spirit series on PBS.

Llewellyn.jpg

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

<hr><h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE has been on a spiritual path since the age of sixteen. Here he describes how the divine feminine opened up the wonder of love, the heart and the soul in his journey, especially following his meeting with the woman who would become his wife.</h4><hr><h3 style="text-align:center;">A Story of the Sacred Feminine</h3><hr>When I was nineteen I met my teacher, a Russian-born woman in her midsixties, recently returned from India where she had been trained by a Sufi master1. Four years later, sitting in her small meditation group, I met and fell in love with a young woman recently arrived to London from Israel, who was to become my wife. As an intense young man,focused on meditation and aspiring to realize a formless Truth, the Sufi path unexpectedly opened me to the mystery of the feminine, and to the wonder of love, both human and divine, formless and tangible.Coming from an English middle-class family, I had spent the years from seven to seventeen in all-male boarding schools. At sixteen I had begun practicing <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/all-zen-now" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zen meditation</a>, awakening to an inner world of emptiness, which also drew me to fasting and other ascetic practices. But now both my heart and my body were being touched in unforeseen ways, and the sacred feminine began to teach me, to awaken me to her wonder, the subtleties of a love that embraces both body and soul. I was being taken out of the monastery into a garden of beauty – fragrant, seductive, full of color and passion. Over the years that followed she was to teach me about her hidden nature, how she can open a soul to the Divine, infuse it with love and longing, and so give birth to one’s spiritual self. And even more profound, how she carries in her body and being the sacred substance of creation, the deepest secret of life2.For a young man deeply in love, beauty and passion, love and longing walk hand in hand. Both the soul and the body cry for union, there are tears and tenderness. I came to know about the feminine side of love, a longing that tears apart one’s whole being. Sometimes this longing was for my physical beloved, and sometimes it was an invisible, inner lover who called and claimed me. How many nights I cried, how many tears I came to know. My teacher used to say that when she came back from India she brought a small handkerchief that had once been blue but was now white, bleached from all the tears she cried sitting in her teacher’s garden. Real love is a powerful poison, as again and again the heart seems to break. Only later did I come to know how this agony, these tears, are a part of the Sufi story, the way we are taken back to God by love’s longing, how we are emptied of ourselves so that we can be filled by a deeper presence. In Rumi’s words:Sorrow for His sake is a treasure in my heart. My heart is light upon light, a beautiful Mary with Jesus in the womb.The soul’s passion is deeply feminine, the cry of the heart is a way that we are purified, prepared for a love that infuses every cell of the body as well as the very depths of the soul. Love’s sorrow has a potency and a transformative quality. Rather than outer austerities, on the Sufi path it is this inner agony that draws us along the way; that burns us with both tenderness and fire.And in this deepest spiritual mystery of the feminine – from within this cry, from these tears – something is born, unexpected, beyond anything we could imagine. I remember this first experience, when one afternoon in meditation I experienced a love that began like butterfly wings at the edge of my heart, and then touched every cell in my body. Like the first kiss of one’s heart’s beloved, I was alive with love, tender, intense. Over the years this love would come again and again, deeper, lasting longer, until at times all that remained was love – both body and mind dissolved. But this first time was a miracle I never expected. I knew the intense desire for Truth, and the intoxicating formless inner vistas of meditation. But this opening to love, awakening of love within the body, was like colors appearing in a gray world.This feminine side of love taught me not just about passion and beauty, but I also learned many of the qualities of the feminine that later I understood as central to mystical life. Love, and a woman, can teach you about tenderness and the value of softness – how the heart has to be softened, tenderized for the Beloved. We are made soft by love, so that divine presence can be more easily infused into our being.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lover_journey2_de38b122a4.jpg"><hr>The lover also learns patience and waiting. One cannot demand or force love. The lover waits at the threshold – for days, weeks, sometimes years – knowing only longing or a dry desolation. Then one day, always unexpectedly, the door opens and love takes you to her chamber, where sweetness turns into ecstasy and rapture, lasting for a minute, an hour, an eternity. Then, bewildered, one is back at the doorway, bliss becoming despair. And so one is made unbearably vulnerable, turned inside out, broken by love until that touch comes again and one is made whole, complete, merged back into love.She teaches us to wait, to be patient, for the ways of the Beloved are not our ways. And she reveals the importance of receptivity, the ultimate feminine mystery that belongs to creation and birth. For a mystic receptivity is a central practice, what is called ‘divine receptivity’, in which we are inwardly attentive, listening and waiting for the call of our Beloved. Our heart becomes a space where we can listen with the ear of the heart, learn to see with the eye of the heart, and finally be a space for the Beloved to be born, to be a living presence within us. In silence, receptivity, meditation, and stillness, we offer our self to our Beloved every day. “I offer to Thee the only thing I have, my capacity to be filled by Thee.” Love teaches us about surrender, about giving our self.Later we learn the spiritual importance of surrender – how surrender takes us back to union – but at first it is lived, not as a spiritual concept, but belonging to the lane of love, that one-way street from which we can never return. In love we give our self again and again, e open our heart and our body, and sometimes we are taken by love, but often we feel stranded, lost, or abandoned. In our sadness, in our tears, we do not know the deeper mystery of oneness: that our cry is our Beloved’s cry; our prayer is Love’s prayer.I had been taken into this mystery by the eyes of a woman and a longing in my heart. The tangle of her hair, the softness of her body, had taken and taught me what spiritual texts could not. Divinelove is a spiritual and physical experience, and in a woman the two are united, body and soul. The Indian poet and princess, Mirabai knew this secret. She was in love with Krishna, her Dark Lord, and she left her palace to dance before him. She had experienced the soul’s rapture with her Dark Lord, and speaks of the body’s ‘hidden treasures’:O friend, understand: the body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures. Open your innermost chamber and light its lamp. Within the body are gardens, rare flowers, the inner Music; within the body a lake of bliss, on it the white soul-swans take their joy. And in the body, a vast market – go there, trade, sell yourself for a profit you can’t spend. Mira says, her Lord is beyond praising. Allow her to dwell near your feet.In her words of rapture are one of the deepest mysteries of the feminine: how in her body are “gardens, rare flowers, the inner Music.” This is not just erotic imagery, but alludes to the secret of creation, and the beauty and wonder that belong to this essential substance. Without this quality of the feminine there would be no joy, the magic of life would not be present. Colors and fragrances would fade into dull, gray days.Because a woman, every woman, has the potential to give birth, to bring the light of a soul into the world of matter, she has this hidden substance, the sacred substance of creation. It is in the cells of her body and her spiritual nature. In it the visible and invisible are fused together. It belongs to the alchemy of love that is creation itself, born out of love. And it also carries the imprint of our deep love for the Earth, for the world that has given us life and sustenance – that has given us our existence.That so many women do not even know of this essential substance within them is one of the great unnoticed tragedies of our present time. The Eleusinian mystery schools, where these mysteries were taught for centuries, have been forgotten, and because it was an oral tradition there is no written record. And the power of the patriarchy has censured it from our collective memory. There may be a trace of it in Jesus’s relationship to Mary Magdalene, who was “loved by Jesus more than others,” and in the symbolism that she was the first to see the risen Christ at the empty tomb.3<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">The soul’s passion is deeply feminine, the cry of the heart is a way that we are purified, prepared for a love that infuses every cell of the body as well as the very depths of the soul.</h5>&nbsp;<hr><hr>But these are just echoes of an ancient esoteric tradition into which so many women used to be initiated. Now, sadly, it is forgotten and women have been denied their heritage. It is this substance that turns a simple struggle for existence into a joyous experience of life with all of its colors and tastes, tragedies, heartaches and bliss. It is the seed of life’s flower – and it is present in the body of a woman. And sadly, today, because the mysteries of the feminine are no longer taught, most women do not even consciously know of its existence. They may sense its presence in the seductive power of their sexuality, but this is only a small part of its magic. Because it is not just physical, but also spiritual – spirit in matter, fused together, united, bonded in love.My wife taught me this central feminine mystery and how it relates to the sacred within life. It is one of the greatest gifts a woman can give to a man4, as it can help a man reconnect with his own soul as an embodied presence within life. It belongs to the mystery of love and brings beauty, magic – the gardens, flowers and inner music Mirabai describes – but also something indefinable: “Here is the deepest secret nobody knows…. and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart.”5 It is through this simple secret that everyday existence becomes alive with a quality of meaning in which we are reconnected to life as a whole, a sparkling web of wonder.The Earth today is dying, its rivers becoming sterile, the air polluted. Exploitation and consumerism are ravaging the planet, destroying the fragile web of life. And the inner world of the soul is also being desecrated by our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, made toxic from the effects of our greed. There is a vital need to heal and regenerate our planet, and this cannot just be done through green technology or carbon reduction. We have passed this ‘tipping point’, and need a deeper transformation.Without the feminine nothing new can be born – this is a simple and essential truth. At present our world is suffering from a masculine story of separation: that we are separate from each other and separate from the Earth. To redeem and heal this we need to give birth to a story that is based upon oneness, that we are interconnected and interdependent with all of creation – an integral part of the web of life – what the Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh calls interbeing. It is the feminine that instinctively understands all the interconnections in life, the patterns of relationship that hold life together. She has a natural relationship to life’s wholeness. She knows that everything is connected, not with the knowledge that comes from the mind, but from the deep knowing that belongs to life itself, to the cells of her body.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lover_journey3_d59dc7cc98.jpg"><hr>But even more essential is the need for the light held within the body of a woman, for her sacred substance, to bring healing and regeneration. This is the mystery of rebirth imaged in the myth of Demeter and Persephone that was central to the feminine mysteries, the descent into darkness from where regeneration came every spring. We are now in a time of darkness, having lost the light of the sacred in our daily lives. The simple rituals of cooking and cleaning, planting and harvesting, are no longer honored as sacred, the fires of the temples of the priestesses have long been extinguished. We need the seeds of rebirth that belong to the womb of the feminine, that sacred place where new life comes into being.This is one of the most important contributions of the feminine at this time. It is a most vital need. Yet this innate knowing, this mystery and magic, is tragically veiled, hidden from so many women. In the West today so many women are attracted to spiritual life, and sometimes I wonder if it is because they are in search of this secret, and that they also have a part to play in the spiritual regeneration of life itself.How this sacred substance is given back to the Earth is a secret waiting to be revealed. On an individual level, from a woman to a man, this sacred substance is given through the act of sex (though it is deeper than a solely physical act), and it is also held as an ancient instinctual wisdom within some women. My sense is that through prayer and a deep inner listening, women can rediscover and reconnect with this sacred relationship with the Earth. There are many ways to pray with the Earth: from the simple act of gardening with love and care, to walking in a sacred manner, each step a lived prayer to the Earth6, or sitting in silence and going deep within to where our soul and the world soul meet. If I have learned anything from the feminine, it is the power and potency of receptivity, and how to wait with patience for a deeper wisdom to be given.<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">It is through this simple secret that everyday existence becomes alive with a quality of meaning in which we are reconnected to life as a whole, a sparkling web of wonder.</h5>&nbsp;<hr><hr>I have been honored in my life’s journey to have been shown these qualities of the feminine and how they can be woven into life, into the stories we live. They bring a certain color into the tapestry of life – a color that awakens a dormant mystery and sense of belonging. Here life comes to know its own purpose, not as survival but wonder. And behind this mystery is the greatest secret: that life is a love affair; that it is born from love. This gift of the feminine can only be given through love, through an openness of the soul. And in relation to the Earth it can only become fully alive through our love for the Earth. The Earth speaks to the soul that She needs this spark, this light, and the woman who knows the mystery of love in her own being can respond, can give what is needed – from her soul to the soul of the world, her body to the body of the Earth.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/lover_journey4_3483a7151d.jpg"><hr>This sacred substance in creation is life’s most precious gift. We can feel it in the joy of a newborn baby, eyes still unfocused; hear it in the laughter of children; see it in the beauty of a rainbow; taste it in a simple meal cooked with love. It is all around us in life’s unending multiplicity, always recreating – the miraculous ways the sacred takes on form. The lover can experience its power and magic, deeper than bliss, through merging with his beloved. It brings together the soul and the body, and holds them both in love. In the Earth it unites Her body with Her soul, the anima mundi, known to the ancients. Through ritual and reverence, this communion was kept alive by the priestesses, by those initiated into the secrets of creation. And now as a light is going out, as the world is becoming covered by the dark dreams of materialism, as our relationship to the sacred is fading away, we need this reconnection, this return to love. There is a cry, a calling for the feminine to help in its healing and rebirth, for the sacred to come alive in a new way, for a new story for the Earth and all of humanity to be told.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;1 The Russian-born woman who became my spiritual teacher was Irina Tweedie 2 What the Sufis call the secret of the word “Kun!” meaning “Be!” 3 In order to deny the power of the feminine, and possibly to suppress women’s leadership in the Church, the Christian Church mistakenly associated Mary Magdalene with a prostitute 4 It is often given through making love, and in ancient temples was a part of the mystery of the sacred prostitute 5 E.E. Cummings: “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]” 6 “Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet,” Thich Nhat Hanh<hr>Reprinted with permission of the author, © 2017 The Golden Sufi Center.<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

A lover's journey

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE explores love in the time of coronavirus, and how those
 of us with a spiritual practice can turn the results into action, bringing care and compassion into our communities.
</h4>
Suddenly we are all thrown together into a time of anxiety, fear for the health of
 family, friends, loved ones and neighbors, and for the economic distress caused by this pandemic. While some countries
 have a strong safety net, many live pay-check to pay-check, or even day-to-day, the rickshaw driver without customers
 having nothing to feed his family. This is the reality of the global crisis we are all encountering. It is also a
 testing time for those of us who are fortunate to be rooted in a spiritual practice, faced with the simple opportunity
 to open towards love rather than contract into fear.
There is a story that when the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan were sweeping across
 Central Asia, destroying cities, massacring the population, fearful dervishes ran to the great mystic Shams, the
 teacher of Rumi, shouting, “The Mongols are coming, the Mongols are coming!” He calmly replied, “I have been teaching
 you to be a duck, now swim.” For those of us drawn to the path of love, now is the opportunity to put our practice
 into action, to bring care and compassion into our communities, rather than being caught in the collective patterns of
 anxiety or panic that are swirling around us. This pandemic has taught us that we are all one, no one is separate, no
 countries or borders can limit the spread of the virus. Rather we have to respond from a place of shared humanity,
 helping and supporting each other.
<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">Love and care – care for each other, 
 care for the Earth – are the simplest 
 and most valuable human qualities. 
 And love belongs to oneness.
</h5>
<hr>
The most common sense response to the virus has been to self-isolate, to close
 everything except essential services. Isolation is the oldest and most tested way to prevent the spread of a disease.
 In the Middle Ages in Europe whole cities were quarantined to prevent the spread of the plague. It is vital that as
 far as possible we practice social distancing. But rather than any sense of isolation is the knowing that we are all
 in this together, that it is part of our shared journey together with each other and with the Earth. And the power of
 our love can serve as a balance to the darkness of fear, to the forces that can so easily contract us.
And in the strength of our love and our shared journey we can use this crisis as an
 opportunity, a moment to step back from the daily demands, the busyness of our outer life. With so many stores and
 businesses closed, we experience our life reduced to what is essential, and when this pandemic is over, can we
 continue with a voluntary simplicity, no longer caught in the addictions of consumerism? We can recognize that the
 Earth is sending us a message, that it is out of balance and needs our love and care and attention. We are all part of
 one interdependent living being, ancient beyond our understanding.
We can no longer afford to pollute it with our ceaseless desires, filling the air with
 carbon emissions, the oceans with plastic.
If there is a light in this present crisis, it is in the air pollution plunging across
 China; ducks, fish, and clear waters returning to the canals of Venice. And possibly the shock of the pandemic will
 warn us of the danger of denying science, of waiting until it is too late. Maybe we can finally recognize that the
 imbalance of the Earth can and will affect us all, suddenly, unexpectedly.
<a
 href="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Open_Towards_Love2_1d646f58e3.jpg">
 <img class="lazyload has-img-center"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Open_Towards_Love2_1d646f58e3.jpg" />
 </a>
Love and care – care for each other, care for the Earth – are the
 simplest and most valuable human qualities. And love belongs to oneness. We&nbsp;know this in our human
 relationships, how love draws us closer, and in its most intimate moments we can experience physical union with
 another. It can also awaken us to the awareness that we are one human family, and on the deepest level love can
 reconnect us with our essential unity with all life, with the Earth herself.
Love will remind us that we are a part of life – that we belong to each other and to
 this living, suffering planet. We just need to say “yes” to this mystery within our own hearts, to open to the link of
 love that unites us all, that is woven into the web of life. Only from this place of living oneness can we support
 each other in this crisis and then walk into a future that recognizes, feels, the sacred nature of all that exists,
 and so help to bring our world back into balance. We can emerge from this pandemic with a deeper sense of our shared
 humanity and our love for our common home, its mystery and wonder. Or we can remain stranded on the desolate shores of
 materialism, as in a supermarket where the shelves are increasingly empty.
<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE 
 Illustrations by JASMEE RATHOD</h4>
<hr>

Open toward love

<h4>In this article, LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE ignites our sense aligncenter of wonder with his personal experiences of a deepening relationship with food over the course of his life. He also offers us some valuable tips in “The Practice of Cooking with Love.”</h4>Let dharma be the same as food, and let food be the same as dharma … This food is the fulfillment that is the joy of dharma and the delight of meditation. &nbsp;DogenWhen I was in my teens and began to practice meditation, I also learned to cook. I have an instinctual belief that to prepare and cook one’s food with attention is an essential part of spiritual life that provides a necessary ingredient for the journey. When Dogen, the founder of the Soto Zen school, went to China to rediscover the roots of Zen, his most instructive meeting was with an old monk who was the chief cook of the monastery, who rebuked him for not understanding that cooking was a spiritual practice.Maybe it was this ancient tradition that returned when, along with meditation, I learned to chop vegetables and bake stoneground bread. I had been brought up without any consciousness of food, in the English style of cooking, in which cabbage is boiled for twenty minutes until all the goodness has long gone. With my chopping board, knives and wok, I learned to bring attention to cooking and eating. It was also an excellent silent rebellion against my middle class family background. While everyone was eating their Sunday lunch of roast beef and roast potatoes, I was sitting at the same table eating a bowl of rice and vegetables with chopsticks!I learned to cook with awareness, with a sense that food is not just something we eat but also part of a spiritual practice, a sense that cooking and meditation go together, bringing outer and inner purity. Through being attentive to the preparation of our food, we bring an awareness into a basic substance and sustenance of life. Just as being aware of the breath is central to spiritual life, reconnecting us with life’s essence, so is the simple art of cooking. What is more satisfying than a bowl of rice and vegetables that you have prepared and cooked with attention – what is a greater gift to a visitor and friend?Then one day in my late twenties, I discovered something very different about cooking. My teacher invited me to a meal she had cooked, simple Indian fritters with rice and chutney. And I tasted love. I had never known that one can taste love, but after that meal my understanding of cooking changed completely. Yes, attention as one chops the vegetables, as one stirs the pot, is vital, but there is another ingredient that adds a totally different dimension to a meal – love.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love2_a4c4e3d980.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T05:59:15.744Z" alt="cooking-with-love">If in my childhood there was little consciousness about food, there was no awareness of love. And to be given a plate of fritters and rice in which love was the central ingredient and the main taste was revolutionary. Even the idea that one can taste love was something altogether new. Other people may have known this all their lives, known the sweetness of a cake that comes not just from the sugar, but it opened worlds to me.Is there a technique for cooking with love? I do not know, except that it happens. Maybe it happens when, as with the old cook who taught Dogen, cooking becomes one’s “practice of the Way.” My teacher had studied with a Sufi master in India and learned the secrets of love, and how to work with love. Her cooking was an expression of her training and practice. But from this one meal I learned something so simple and wonderful: that one can put love into food that then nourishes both the body and the soul. This new ingredient now became central to my cooking.There are wonderful spiritual practices for cooking. One can cook with mindfulness and attention, as in the Zen tradition. One can say a mantra or dhikr when one prepares a meal, so that the food is infused with remembrance of God. But love is a simple expression of the heart. It does not require special training, only an awareness and offering of the love in one’s heart. And the food responds. The food knows that it is loved and it passes on this gift to the one who enjoys the food. A deep sharing then takes place, as if an ancient magic is part of the meal.So now, when I cook, I remember that meal of rice and fritters, I remember love. Of course sometimes I just make and eat an omelet, grill a piece of fish, and maybe I am not even consciously attentive. But if I am present in my heart as well as my fingers, then love can be present, love can be the secret ingredient of a meal. This is one of the reasons I rarely eat at restaurants. The food may taste good, but this central ingredient is hardly ever present; something essential is missing. And love is what speaks to us, both on a cellular level and in the soul. It nourishes our body on all levels.How to cook with love is for each of us to discover, because our heart is unique to each of us, just as the song of our soul is unique to each of us. And yet love is also the primary substance of life; it connects us with the divine Source of all that exists. And for me, one meal cooked with love was an experience of a lifetime. Forty years later I can still taste it.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love4_1ee55f5dc5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:00:38.712Z" alt="cooking-with-love"><h4>THE PRACTICE of COOKING with LOVE</h4>Food and love are two of the most vital forms of human nourishment. Combining them is a simple but essential practice.Love is alive. It is so much more than just the feeling we call love; it is the animating force of life, working according to principles far vaster than our own lives. When we feel it moving, most of us try to grab on to it or chase after it, make it our own. But it is the very nature of love to move and flow. The more it flows, the more it serves. It grows as it is given.Cooking with love is natural, because through cooking we give. Cooking and serving food are two of the most ancient and basic human gifts. We serve those who eat the food with the Earth’s sustenance – Its gift – as well as with our time, effort, care, and attention. Through this gift we are in turn given the opportunity to consciously reconnect with the foundation of life.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love10_2b2ebe0270.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:01:26.213Z" alt="cooking-with-love">To practice cooking with love,&nbsp;begin with the trust and confidence that love is accessible and can be worked with. Without this fundamental understanding, love will not be drawn in, cannot season, or nourish. Cultivate the trust that love is always available to an open heart, and that through our loving attention we can create ways for love to flow.<h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love7_718af7646e.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:02:35.056Z" alt="cooking-with-love"></h4>As you prepare to cook,&nbsp;let your heart open to love. Let yourself feel – love comes in on feeling. A simple way to begin to access love in the kitchen is to cook for people you love – your friends, your family, your partner, the person you’re in love with – allowing your feeling for them to infuse the process. We experience love most familiarly in the love we feel for others and from others, the feelings of affinity and affection or passion that bind human beings together. Even if you are cooking just for yourself, you can bring love in, drawing on the same kindness and compassion of love that you would bring to others. This love is not self-regard, but a real, needed nourishment for the body and soul.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love8_cee65f8f1c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:03:23.247Z" alt="cooking-with-love">As love animates all of life,&nbsp;it is not limited to our love for one another and ourselves. It can be found everywhere, in everything. It is abundantly present in the ingredients we use in our cooking, and we can access it simply through bringing our open attention to them as we work. Begin by slowing down – don’t rush. Give yourself time and space to cook. Look closely at the ingredients you are using. Consciously touch and smell them. Recognize the bright beauty of the carrot; the symmetry of a cauliflower; the mysterious, universal swirl of a fiddlehead; the simple wonder of an egg. Breathe in the scent of the herbs and be conscious of their unique properties – how one can revive your liver and another soothe your stomach. Imagine the cow, buffalo, or chicken in the meat, milk, cheese, or eggs you are cooking, acknowledging the living animal whose life has become part of your food. Feel the love from the Earth that has made all this bounty available to you.<h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love9_65470278c5.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:20:26.055Z" alt="cooking-with-love"></h4>The love that gives life&nbsp;to all things also comes alive through your hands. It is accessible through the simple awareness and care you bring to chopping the vegetables, stirring the pot. As you work, bring the feeling from your heart into your hands, from your hands into the food. Love is alive; it wants to flow, and through your attention you can participate in directing its flow.<h4><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love6_053ac44654.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:21:14.498Z" alt="cooking-with-love"></h4>Be attentive to the offering&nbsp;that this act of cooking is. As you pepper the stew to refine the taste, be aware that you are creating something to give, to feed, and share. Reaffirm the fundamental generosity of the Earth – how it not only keeps us alive but gives us pleasure and enjoyment through our senses of smell and taste, and how through cooking you are participating in that generosity.In our modern world we have almost entirely lost this direct relationship with food. But food links us together and to the Earth, and cooking can help us become more conscious of this essential gift of love. Everything that is part of cooking – from the fire of the stove and the herbs we season with, to the water or wine we pour – invites us to consciously participate in this circle of life that both gives and receives. The more we recognize that we are part of this wholeness, not separate from it, the more love can flow with and through us.The world needs love. It needs love to flow like water, to be breathed like oxygen. Love can be savored, as it nourishes us in hidden ways. Love is like a key ingredient in a recipe that only the grandmothers remember. And yet it is here with us, waiting to be used, simple – like salt on the shelf. It is the most fundamental ingredient of all of life.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Cooking_with_love5_69d9b106af.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T06:22:45.187Z" alt="cooking-with-love"><hr>Reprinted with permission from Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life. <a href="www.spiritualecology.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.spiritualecology.org</a> © 2017 The Golden Sufi Center, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee &amp; Hilary Hart.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE Main illustrations by JASMEE RATHOD</h4><hr>

Cooking with love

<hr class="vertical-space1">
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">LLEWELLYN VAUHGAN-LEE challenges us to examine the
 ceaseless demands of today’s world that so easily fill up our days. With our smart phones and computer screens we
 often remain caught on the surface of our lives, amidst the noise and chatter that continually distract us, that
 stops us from being rooted in our true nature. Unaware we are drowned deeper and deeper in a culture of soulless
 materialism.</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">In response, along with HILARY HART, he finds it
 more and more important to have outer activities that can connect us to what is more natural and help us live in
 relationship to the deep root of our being, and in an awareness of the moment which alone can give real meaning to
 our everyday existence. Over the years he has developed a number of simple practices that bring together action and
 a quality of mindfulness, or deepening awareness, that can nourish our lives in hidden ways. These activities, like
 mindful walking, cooking with love and attention, can reconnect us with the web of life, our natural interconnection
 with life in its beauty and wonder. They can help us ‘declutter’ our outer life and instead become rooted in what is
 simple and real. They can help us to return to joy. One of these practices, which combines action with mindfulness,
 is simplicity.</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1">
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Simplicity, patience, compassion. 
 These three are your greatest treasures. 
 Simple in actions and in thoughts, 
 you return to the source of being. 
 Patient with both friends and enemies, 
 you accord with the way things are. 
 Compassionate toward yourself, 
 you reconcile all beings in the world.
</h4>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">– Lao Tsu</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1">

The boat people of Southeast Asia, the Moken, have few possessions. They can only carry
 what they need in their small boats. They also have no word in their language for ‘worry’. But when the tsunami
 came, they were attentive and watchful of the water; they saw the sea first come high on the beach and then recede
 far out. They remembered their stories, their myths of what happens to the seas, and so took their boats into deep
 water and survived the tsunami. The local fishermen did not survive; their boats were destroyed. They did not watch.
 They were not attentive.
How can we be fully attentive when our lives are cluttered with so many possessions, so
 many attachments, so many desires? Will we have time to remember the stories, to watch and move our little boat to
 deeper waters? Or will we be like the local fisherman, inattentive to the need of the moment, sunk by the tsunami of
 materialism? We live in a culture in which we are constantly bombarded, our attention distracted, no longer just by
 the ‘ten thousand things’ of the ancient world, but by ten million things. Everything is demanding our attention,
 wanting us to consume, to buy, to spend our money and our time. And we do not even know the depths and subtleties of
 this web of consumerism, its powers of deception.
How can we create a space of clarity, of attentiveness? How can we return to what is
 essential? How can we remember what really matters, what gives meaning and substance to our daily lives? How can we
 return to a simplicity of life that honors the simplicity of our essential nature, that gives space for the sacred?

First, we have to acknowledge that our whole culture is caught in the grip of
 unnecessary desires and recognize the poison of accumulation for what it is. We are conditioned and pressured to
 want more and more – this is the myth of continual economic progress. This myth has become a monster destroying our
 ecosystem, taking our money and our life energy. It has polluted our consciousness with its slogans and jingles,
 designed to distort, to manipulate. And we do not even know the power of its dark magic, how much it has us in its
 grip, feeding us false promises of a better life, assuring us that ‘things go better’ with the purchase of a
 product. It has saturated every corner of our culture. We are pressured to consume packaged food and even packaged
 spirituality. We no longer know the ingredients of our lives.
Second, we have to have the strength to say “No.” To go against this toxic flow, to
 resist the power of its empty promises and the corporations behind them, we have to regain an essential simplicity,
 return to what we need rather than what we think we want. Only then can we begin to hear the music of life, be
 attentive to the inner and outer need of the Earth. Only then can we become alive with what is sacred and true.
Third, we have to learn to discriminate, to clear our inner and outer clutter. In the
 classical love story of Eros and Psyche, one of Psyche’s almost impossible tasks is to sort a huge pile of seeds.
 Like Psyche, we have to sort the many things in our life; we have to make conscious what is of value, what we really
 need. Discrimination is never an easy task. But as Psyche is aided in her task by some willing ants, we too have
 help, in the form of an instinctual wisdom, a quiet quality, that is present to us if we are paying attention. And
 it becomes easier after time and practice. As we clear more space in our inner and outer lives, we become more
 attuned to what is necessary, more aware of the deceptions and false promises of unnecessary ‘stuff ’. We see more
 clearly how our possessions take more than just space, they also take our attention.


<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">How can we create a space of clarity, of
 attentiveness? 
 How can we return to what is essential? 
 How can we remember what really matters, 
 what gives meaning and substance to our daily lives? 
 How can we return to a simplicity of life that honors 
 the simplicity of our essential nature, 
 that gives space for the sacred?
</h5>


<hr>
Personally I love the old Taoist ways, the ways of the hermits whose spirituality and
 nature were blended together, their poems a flock of wild geese crossing high in the sky. They lived an essential
 simplicity that speaks to my soul: their possessions one robe and one bowl, the decoration of their mountain hut
 ‘the moon at the window’. I have tried to recapture this simplicity in my life, but today we seem to need so many
 things just to get by. Again and again I have tried to empty my room, especially when I was younger. But family life
 demanded more and more possessions – many more than needed by a hermit in a hut – though my children would still
 complain that I threw out too many things.
<img decoding="async" class="lazyload img-float-left has-img-center-in-mobile"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/simplicity2_1_2ce3341e7a.jpg" alt="simplicity-2">So
 over
 the years I have tried instead to keep an inner simplicity, an empty space in as many moments of the day as is
 possible. Now I am getting older, once again I feel the tug of this other landscape, a longing for a small cottage
 and rain-swept hills – maybe the beautiful and bleak Scottish highlands I knew as a child. But my life remains full,
 though more with people than possessions. So I keep this simplicity as an inner secret, an emptiness that I crave.

Still I have to be careful. I use modern technology: a computer, the Internet, and I
 love listening to music on an iPod. All around me I feel consumerism and its dark web of desires that so easily
 entangles us, more than we realize. And often it is not enough to clear out the physical clutter in our homes; we
 need also to bring a simplicity to how we spend our time, how we use our attention – to be mindful in how we live.

The practice of meditation and mindfulness can clear the clutter of our minds. A few
 trips to the goodwill or charity store can clear the clutter from our homes.
And then continual attention is needed so that the currents of accumulation do not fill
 the empty space we have created. And beyond the clutter of thoughts and things, we also have to watch that we are
 not caught in constant activity, our culture’s emphasis on endless ‘doing’ rather than ‘being’. We need space in
 order to watch, to listen, to walk, to breathe – to be present. The Tao Te Ching teaches the value of not
 doing:
Less and less is done until nothing is done, 
 When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
Through a quality of emptiness we can access a deeper rhythm than the surface jangle of
 constant activity. We used to be held by the rhythms of the seasons and the soil. Now we have to struggle to return
 to a rhythm and a space that are not toxic with consumption, that belong to the seasons of the sacred, where life
 still flows true to its essential nature. Simplicity, patience, and compassion can guide and keep us inwardly
 aligned. Gradually we can once again listen to the Earth, to Her wisdom and beauty; we can feel the beating of both
 Her heart and ours. We can feel again the deep belonging that allows us to be present in every moment, not as a
 practice but a simple state of being. We can remember why we are here.


<hr>
<h5 style="text-align: center;">Gradually we can once again listen to the
 Earth, 
 to Her wisdom and beauty; we can feel the beating of both Her heart and
 ours. 
 We can feel again the deep belonging that allows us to be present in every
 moment, 
 not as a practice but a simple state of being.
</h5>


<hr>
<hr class="vertical-space1">
<h4>SIMPLICITY PRACTICE</h4>
Simplicity is the essence of life. The word itself comes from the Latin
 simplex, meaning uncompounded or composed of a single part. Simple things reflect this essential nature,
 which belongs to everything in creation. When we honor the simple things of life, we bring ourselves back to this
 oneness, our true Home.

All the practices in this book are a return to simplicity. Breathing, walking, growing
 food, cooking … these are the ‘chop wood, carry water’ of our day. If we honor what is essential in our lives, we
 connect with the life force that runs free of the dramas of our individual and collective psyche. Here we are
 connected and responsive.
Give extra attention to your
 simple daily activities, like rising from bed and putting two feet on the floor. Pause
 there. You are awake; you are alive. Take note of how you feel in your body, and how your feet touch the floor. Be
 aware as you move towards the bathroom, towards the kitchen and the coffee or tea. Be grateful for water in the
 sink, for oranges that made your juice, for milk in your tea. Drink slowly. Appreciate your food. Appreciate your
 family, the sun coming in the window, the beauty you see in your partner and children. Simplicity reveals itself
 through slowness, in quiet moments when you can see, feel, taste, touch and listen. Take time during the day to stop
 rushing. Move through the day with respect and openness.
Take an honest inventory of
 your life. Look at the things you have that take up time and psychic space. Look at your
 activities and commitments. Which of these things do you actually need? Which are habits and entanglements that take
 up space and weigh you down? Which reflect your real values, feed your soul, and touch you with love? Do you need or
 just want that new thing, that new activity, that has caught your eye? For a short time, try going without some of
 the things of your life. Maybe you don’t need them after all.
Let nature teach
 you. In nature, we are students of simplicity. The way a tree grows towards the sun, the way
 a cat stretches beside the fire, the way the seasons come round again and again without fail, can teach the
 simplicity of what is. The essential nature of our own lives – the cycle of birth, death, suffering and joy, and
 even liberation – also reflects this simplicity. We might make our lives complicated by how we relate to these –
 fighting death, avoiding suffering, searching for freedom and happiness – but that is our superimposed experience,
 not what is. Look for ways to attune to the natural simplicity of life that underlies the complications of our human
 experience.
Bring yourself back
 again and again to what is simple, to what does not change over time, to what shines steady through the fog.
 Ask yourself, do we need more than these things? Do we need more than the beauty of a crab apple tree in spring, a
 warm house in the winter, the way water sounds flowing through a stream, a cup of tea with friends? Do we need more
 in our lives than love?
Practicing simplicity doesn’t mean giving away all our things, quitting our demanding
 jobs, and moving to a mountain hut or living off the grid. It simply means being very honest about what we value in
 our lives, what sustains us, brings us joy and meaning, and devoting ourselves to those activities, people, or
 things. While we might end up having fewer possessions or changing some of our habits, simplicity compels a return,
 not a rejection – a seeing through and within, rather than looking somewhere else. When we live from a place of
 simplicity we naturally find we need less, and instead are more open to life.
Don’t be afraid of simplicity. It can feel stark and empty because it is free of
 psychological complexity and the coverings of accumulated need and desire. But our attention and our genuine
 response – awe, gratitude, appreciation, and respect – help transform that starkness into the richest of human
 experiences.
<hr class="vertical-space1">
Adapted from Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday
 Life. www.spiritualecology.org © 2017 The Golden Sufi Center, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee &amp; Hilary
 Hart. 
 Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a spiritual teacher and author, Hilary Hart is an author with
 a focus on women and feminine consciousness.

<hr class="vertical-space1">


<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUHGAN-LEE and HILARY HART</h4>


<hr>

Simplicity

<h3 style="text-align: center">
 REJOINING THE GREAT CONVERSATION
 </h3>
 <h4>
 LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE delivers a
 heartfelt plea to all of us to open our hearts and care for our Mother
 Earth, value her sacredness, and reconnect with her soul.
 </h4>
 
 <img
 class="img-float-right has-img-center-in-mobile lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Greta_303316327a.jpeg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:03:36.165Z"
 alt="Greta"
 />We are present at a moment in our shared destiny when the Earth is
 crying out to us to help her in this time of crisis that is destroying
 her ecosystem, the fragile web of life that supports her multihued
 unity. All around us are what Thich Nhat Hanh calls the “bells of
 mindfulness” – we can hear them ringing in the unprecedented species
 depletion (such as the recent awareness of what is called the ‘insect
 Armageddon’, with a 45-75% loss of insect biomass), the oceans filling
 with plastic at a rate unfathomable a few decades ago, and accelerating
 climate change; all with unforeseen consequences. And, on a different
 level, though just as painful, is the loss of wildness and wonder, a
 diminishing sense of the sacred that nourishes our souls.
 
 
 Many of us are responding with action and ideas, even as our governments
 and corporations – with their focus on economic growth and materialism –
 are unable or unwilling to make this a real priority. This was
 forcefully articulated at the recent UN Climate Change COP24 Conference
 by the 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who spoke truth to power
 when she said: “We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You
 have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again.”
 
 
 “You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too
 scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the
 same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible
 thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to
 tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I
 don’t care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the
 living planet. …” 
 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg)
 
 
 This last sentence brought tears to my eyes, as my soul heard her speak
 about real care for the Earth – for this living, beautiful being who has
 given us life, who has nourished us with her endless generosity, even as
 we have abused and desecrated her, raped and pillaged her body, which
 our culture regards greedily as just a ‘resource’ for our endless use
 and abuse.
 
 
 But behind Greta’s phrase, “the living planet,” is a deeper truth that
 calls out to our forgetfulness. As was known to the ancients and to
 indigenous peoples, our Earth is a being with a soul as well as a body,
 what in the West we called the anima mundi, the soul of the
 world, and what the Kogi in the Sierra Nevada in Colombia call
 Aluna, the spiritual intelligence within nature. Until we
 recognize, remember, and reconnect with the spiritual nature of the
 Earth, the primal intelligence within all life, we will be walking in
 the darkness of our forgetfulness, unable to find the way to work
 together with her, to start to heal and transform the living oneness to
 which we all belong.
 
 <hr />
 <h5 style="text-align: center">
 Spiritual Activism is an emerging field that calls for a spiritual
 response 
 to our present global crisis – to our present social divisiveness and
 ecological devastation, 
 to our self-destructive identification with an old story of
 separation 
 rather than embracing the living story of life’s interdependent
 oneness.
 </h5>
 <hr />
 
 <img
 class="has-img-center lazyload w-100 h-auto"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Rejoining2_31b3e86d6b.jpeg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:04:14.474Z"
 alt="Rejoining2"
 />
 
 
 Every butterfly, every bee, every waterfall, every dream we have, is a
 part of this living, spiritual being. She is ancient beyond our
 understanding, even as she is crying out at this moment. The greatest
 unspoken tragedy of this time is that we have forgotten her living
 sacred presence, and this is the silent censorship that has clear-cut
 our consciousness. In the West, when the early Christians violently
 banished paganism, they burned the books that understood her magical
 nature;1 and now, as the web of life is being torn apart, we
 do not even know how to respond. We do not know how to access her
 wisdom, how to return to being a part of the great conversation that
 belongs to all of life. We remain stranded on the desolate shores of
 materialism, as in a supermarket where the shelves are increasingly
 empty.
 
 
 Spiritual Activism is an emerging field that calls for a spiritual
 response to our present global crisis – to our present social
 divisiveness and ecological devastation, to our self-destructive
 identification with an old story of separation rather than embracing the
 living story of life’s interdependent oneness. Yes, we desperately need
 to reduce carbon emissions and pesticides, to stop turning rainforests
 into ranchland or palm oil plantations. But there is also a call to
 reconnect with the sacred within creation, with the spiritual lifeblood
 of the planet. Otherwise we will just be continuing the same one-sided
 conversation that has caused this devastation. We need to work together
 with the Earth, to include her wonder and wisdom. We need to reconnect
 with her soul.
 
 <hr />
 <h5 style="text-align: center">
 It does not need governments or big organizations; 
 just individuals whose hearts are open 
 and who have heard the cry of the Earth. 
 Within our own being we can make this connection, 
 and so help to bring the sacred alive again 
 in our own daily life and the life of the Earth.
 </h5>
 <hr />
 
 And this is a work that we each can do. It does not need governments or
 big organizations; just individuals whose hearts are open and who have
 heard the cry of the Earth. Within our own being we can make this
 connection, and so help to bring the sacred alive again in our own daily
 life and the life of the Earth. There are many different ways to
 reconnect. In a recent book,
 Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday
 Life, I outline a number of simple spiritual practices, from walking in a
 sacred manner, to cooking with love and cleaning with awareness.2 Whatever our practice, this foundational work is not complicated, but
 rather simply requires our attention, real mindfulness. It can empower
 us to make a real contribution to enable humanity to rejoin the great
 conversation, the sacred relationship with the Earth that was part of
 the Original Instructions given to our ancestors.
 
 
 The Earth will continue. We are now living through the sixth mass
 extinction of species in her history. It is our shared future that is
 uncertain: whether we will keep to our ancient promise to witness her
 wonder and beauty, honor her sacred ways; or whether we will continue
 our present path, stumbling through an increasingly soulless wasteland,
 caught in consumerism, until the sea levels rise, the air becomes too
 toxic, the oceans too acidic, our souls too desolate. Again, in the
 words of the young activist Greta Thunberg, “We have run out of excuses
 and we are running out of time.” But she also said, “Change is coming.”
 The real question is whether we are open to being a part of real change
 – for hearts and hands to help the Earth, for our souls to reconnect
 with the magic and mystery of her living being.
 
 
 1Beginning in the fourth century, the early Christians
 banned or burned up to 90% of pagan or pre-Christian writings. Of some
 pagan philosophers only fragments now remain (Catherine Nixey,
 The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical
 World).
 
 
 2The chapters ‘Walking’, ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Cleaning’ have
 been published in previous issues of Heartfulness Magazine.
 
 <hr />
 <h4 style="text-align: center">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE</h4>
 <hr />

Reconnecting with the soul of the world

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE&nbsp;&amp; HILARY HART celebrate the
 sacredness and beauty of all life, challenging us to reconnect with that source of meaning and appreciation.</h4>
You’ve traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the
 Dharma. 
 So many long days in the archives, copying, copying. 
 The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung make heavy baggage. 
 Here! I’ve picked you a bunch of wildflowers. 
 Their meaning is the same but they’re much easier to carry.

—Hsu Yun (Empty Cloud)
Waking early, hearing an owl call from the trees, I feel part of something stretching
 out all around me, a deep vein of life’s meaning running through all that exists. How could I live without this
 heartbeat, this feeling of connection? Life speaks to me in so many ways: from a simple human exchange at the post
 office counter or at the bakery – a smile, a hello – to the evening clouds forming and reforming, pink against the
 setting sun. This is real meaning woven into my days – life’s story telling itself anew every day. It is the sacred
 alive in every moment.
We are surrounded by the sacred; it is in the core of our being and in the Earth’s. It
 is the essential nature of everything that is. The “sacred” is not something primarily religious, or even spiritual.
 It is not a quality we need to learn or to develop. It belongs to the primary nature of all that is. When our
 ancestors knew that everything they could see was sacred, this was not something taught but instinctively known. It
 was as natural as sunlight, as necessary as breathing, a fundamental recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine
 nature of the world. From this sense of the sacred real meaning is born, the meaning that makes our hearts sing with
 the deepest purpose of being alive.
Tragically, our present culture appears to have lost sight of this vital quality.&nbsp;
 Instead we live on the surface, separated from the real substance that has always given everyday life a depth of
 meaning. We are told to find meaning in our individual life, but all around us life itself tells us a different
 story – that we are part of the Earth, that we belong to the community of all of life in its myriad forms. Only
 through recognizing and living this sacred unity can we find and experience the real meaning that life is offering
 to us. And so we have to find ways to remember, to reconnect, to feel again what is all around us.
Meaning is what calls from the depths of the soul. It is the song that sings us into
 life. Whether we have a meaningful life depends upon whether we can hear this song, this primal music of the sacred.
 Sadly, today so much of life is covered in distractions, in the addictions of consumerism. Just as the infinite
 majesty of the stars has become hidden by the lights from our cities, the soul’s music is being drowned out amidst
 life’s constant clamor. Wonder and mystery have become less and less accessible. As a culture we seem to have lost
 the thread that connects the inner world, from which meaning is born, to the outer world, where we spend our days.
 The stories of the soul are no longer told. Instead, our dreams have become the desires of materialism. Even
 spirituality is often sold in the marketplace, another drug that promises to placate us, to cover the growing
 anxiety that something essential is missing.
To find meaning we have to reclaim our sense of the sacred, something our culture
 appears to have overlooked or forgotten. The sacred is an essential quality of life. It connects us to our own soul
 and the Divine that is the source of all that exists.
<hr>
The sacred can be found in any form: 
 a small stone or a mountain, 
 the first cry of a newborn child 
 and the last gasp of a dying person. 
 It can be present in a loaf of bread, 
 on a table, waiting for a meal, 
 and in the words that bless the meal. 
 The remembrance of the sacred 
 is like a central note within life. 
 Without this remembrance 
 something fundamental to our existence is missing. 
 Our daily life lacks a basic nourishment, 
 a depth of meaning. 
 
<hr>
The sacred can be found in any form: a small stone or a mountain, the first cry of a
 newborn child and the last gasp of a dying person. It can be present in a loaf of bread, on a table, waiting for a
 meal, and in the words that bless the meal. The remembrance of the sacred is like a central note within life.
 Without this remembrance something fundamental to our existence is missing. Our daily life lacks a basic
 nourishment, a depth of meaning.
When we feel this music, when we sense this song, we are living our natural connection
 with the Earth and all of life. Meaning is not something that belongs to us. Rather, our life becomes “meaningful”
 when we live this connection, when we feel it under our feet as we walk down the street, in the scent of a flower,
 in rain falling. I am very fortunate in that I live in nature. Early each morning as I walk, sensing the day
 awakening, I feel this simple connection: how the Earth breathes together with me, how It speaks the language of the
 soul and of life’s mystery. Here meaning is as simple as apple blossoms breaking open; as a young hawk, its feathers
 still downy; as the fog lifting across the water.
<img decoding="async" alt="" class="lazyload w-100"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/meaning_and_the_sacred2_1_cedbeaa489.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-07T05:42:34.513Z">

The chapters and practices in this small book are simple ways to reconnect so that we
 can once again feel the music, the song of our living connection with the Earth. They encourage us to slow down, to
 listen, to sense, to feel, and to be attentive. They draw our awareness from fantasies and desires to what is, where
 meaning waits. There are of course many other ways we can reawaken to the sacred in everyday life, feel the meaning
 that is present in everything, like blood flowing through us and through the Earth. As Rumi says, “there are a
 thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” It is this sacred ground that is calling to us, that needs our living
 presence, our attentiveness
We are all part of one living being we call the Earth, who is magical beyond our
 understanding. She gives us life and Her wonder nourishes us. In Her being the worlds come together. Her seeds give
 us both bread and stories. For centuries the stories of seeds were central to humanity, myths told again and again –
 stories of rebirth, life re-creating itself in the darkness. Now we have almost forgotten these stories. Stranded in
 our separate, isolated selves, we do not even know how hungry we have become. We have to find a way to reconnect
 with what is essential – to learn once again how to walk in a sacred manner, how to breathe with awareness, cook
 with love and prayers, how to give attention to simple things.
We need to learn to welcome life in all its colors and fragrances, to say “yes” again
 and again. Then life will give us back the connection to our own soul, and once more we will hear its song. Then
 meaning will return as a gift and a promise. And something within our own heart will open and we will know that we
 have come Home.
Reprinted with permission from Spiritual Ecology: 10
 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life. <a style="color: #cc5214;" href="www.spiritualecology.org"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.spiritualecology.org</a> © 2017 The Golden Sufi Center,
 Llewellyn
 Vaughan-Lee &amp; Hilary Hart.
<hr>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE &amp; HILARY HART</h4>
<hr>

Meaning and the sacred

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE explores the beauty of silence, and the need of the hour for love and compassion. He invites us to listen to the song of unity, and embrace a world waiting to be born.</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">1. How can we reconnect with our deeper selves, our essential nature?</h4>There are many ways to reconnect with our essential nature. Any spiritual practice, prayer or meditation that takes us beneath the surface of our daily life, beneath the clutter of the mind and the demands of the outer world, can be a place of reconnection, a place where we can rest inwardly and be nourished by the deeper roots of our being. And if we need an added ingredient to help us in this work, silence is most valuable, especially in today’s world where noise surrounds us more and more. To learn to be present in an inner and outer silence is a doorway to what is real within ourselves and in the world around us.And as our world appears to spin more and more out of balance – temperatures and sea levels rising, species depleted – there is a pressing need to return to a this deep place, a place of belonging where real healing and transformation can take place. Returning to our essential self, we may find a balance resurfacing from deep within, a balance that reconnects and restores us, and also allows us to contribute in unseen ways.One of Carl Jung’s favorite stories was The Rainmaker, in which a world out of balance, in a time of drought and suffering, was healed not through activity but through a rainmaker retiring to a hut in silence. Three days later the rain came and the drought was over. When he was asked how he brought the rain, he replied, “Oh, I can explain that. I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order, they are not as they should be by the ordinance of heaven. Therefore the whole country is not in Tao, and I am also not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country.“So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao, and then naturally the rain came.”If we are to participate creatively in these toxic times, to bring rain to a land where the inner and outer wells have run dry, first we need to be present “in another country where things are in order.” And this “other country” is not so far away. It can be found in the Earth beneath our feet, and in the space between the in-breath and the out-breath where the soul is present. But first we need to reconnect, to return to this place of balance. And the simplest way is through stillness and silence.Silence draws us inward, away from the clutter and distractions of our outer life, to the deeper roots of our being. Here our soul nourishes us, here we can be replenished, and here we can help replenish our world. The Earth is dying from the ravages of our culture, of our materialistic nightmare that pollutes the air we breathe, the water we drink, and starves our soul from its natural connection to the sacred. In the silence we can drink deeply of the waters of life that are still pure, we can commune with the primal forces of nature, we can return to what is sacred and essential to our life and to the life of the Earth.Here, in this “other country,” the air is not toxic, and the miasma of today’s world in this post-truth era is not blurring our vision. The laughter of children rings true. Stillness is here, and the seasons are in balance. Every in-breath and out-breath is sacred. The breath, the soul, the Earth and its seasons, are linked together, nourished by each other. It is a time to heal.Sitting here at my window, I look out onto the wetlands. I watch the tides rise and fall, the sun red in the morning, sometimes breaking through the mist. Traffic may pass on the road just beneath me, the early morning milk truck, but the silence remains. As I get older I am less and less drawn to activity, more of me remains in stillness, sensing the Earth, watching the birds at my birdfeeder – I love the woodpecker with his bright red crest. Now it is springtime, apple and cherry blossoms already carpeting the ground.<h4 style="text-align:justify;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Silence_and_Compassion2_683ed4489b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T07:31:10.200Z" alt=""></h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">2. How can we create or reimagine a more compassionate world from within the current structures?</h4>There is a world waiting to be born, a world founded upon cooperation rather than competition, a world that honors all life in its diversity and wonder. A compassionate world in which we return to what is simple and essential and remember the “Original Instructions” given to our ancestors and held by Indigenous Wisdom Keepers about “how to get long with all of creation.” And this world, which seems so different to the broken structures of today’s divisive and exploitative culture, is not so far away. It is a world seen through the eyes, the consciousness of oneness, rather than the consciousness of separation. It is a simple shift from “me” to “we.”Oneness holds the essential vision that we are one living, interconnected ecosystem – a living Earth that supports and nourishes all of its inhabitants. If we acknowledge and honor this simple reality, we can begin to participate in the vital work of healing our fractured and ravaged world and embrace a living unity that is our human heritage. This is the opportunity that is being offered to us, even as its dark twin is constellating the dynamics of nationalism, tribalism, isolationism, and all the other regressive forces that try to divide us.Oneness is not a metaphysical idea but something essential and ordinary. It is in every breath, in the wing-beat of every butterfly, in every piece of garbage left on city streets. This oneness is life – life no longer experienced solely through the fragmented vision of the ego, through the distortions of our culture, but known within the heart, felt in the soul. This oneness is the heartbeat of life. It is for each of us to live and celebrate this oneness, to participate in its beauty and wonder. And through our awareness, and actions born of this awareness, we can help to reconnect our world with its original nature.There are many ways to experience and participate in this living oneness. But if I have learned anything after half a century of spiritual practice, it is the power of love. Love comes in so many forms and expressions. There are the simple acts of loving kindness towards friends and family, members of our community, or strangers. Love reaches across boundaries, expressing what is most essential and human: what unites rather than divides. “Small things with great love,” are more potent and powerful than we realize, because they reconnect us with the spiritual roots of life and its transformative and healing energies. Because life is an expression of love, each act of love is a participation and gift to the whole.Cooking a meal with love and care, listening to another’s troubles with an open heart, touching your lover’s body with tenderness, or going deep in prayer until you merge in love’s infinite ocean – in all these acts, we live the love that unites us. And through our loving, we nourish life in unseen ways.And at this time of ecological crisis, as we are tearing apart the fragile web of life, there is a vital need for us to love the Earth, to bring her into our hearts and prayers. We have a spiritual as well as a physical responsibility for “our common home,” and she is calling out to us, crying for our help and healing.”We need to reawaken to the power of love in the world. It is our love for the Earth that will heal what we have desecrated, that will guide us through this wasteland and help us to bring light back into our darkening world. Love links us all together in the most mysterious ways, and love can guide our hearts and hands. The central note of love is oneness. Love speaks the language of oneness, of unity rather than separation.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh: “Real change will only happen when we fall in love with our planet. Only love can show us how to live in harmony with nature and with each other and save us from the devastating effects of environmental destruction and climate change.”</h5><hr>Love can open us to our deep participation in the life of the whole; it can teach us once again how to listen to life, feel life’s heartbeat, sense its soul. It can open us to the sacred within all of creation and can reconnect us with our primal knowing that the Divine is present in everything – in every breath, every stone, every animate and inanimate thing. In the oneness of love, everything is included, and everything is sacred.And from there, we can begin to respond. We cannot return to the simplicity of an indigenous lifestyle, but when we let love guide us we become more aware of the oneness of life. We recognize that how we are and what we do at an individual level affects the global environment, both outer and inner. We can learn how to live in a more sustainable way, according to a deeper understanding of sustainability that rests on an acknowledgment of the sacred within creation. We can live more simply, saying no to unnecessary material things in our outer lives. We can also work inwardly to heal the spiritual imbalance in the world. Our individual conscious awareness of the sacred within creation reconnects the split between spirit and matter within our own soul. Also, because we are so much more a part of the spiritual body of the Earth than we realize, within the soul of the world.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Silence_and_Compassion5_b0ce1e3b8f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T07:32:16.181Z" alt="Silence and Compassion">Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Love draws us back to love, love uncovers love, love makes us whole, and love takes us Home. In the depths of the soul we are loved by God. This is the deepest secret of being human, the bond of love that is at the core of our being and belongs to all that exists. And the more we live this love, the more we give ourselves to this mystery that is both human and divine, the more fully we participate in life as it really is, in its wonder and moment-by-moment revelation.Love and care – care for each other, care for the Earth – are the simplest and most valuable human qualities. And love belongs to oneness. We know this in our human relationships, how love draws us closer, and in its most intimate moments we can experience physical union with another. It can also awaken us to the awareness that we are one human family, even as our rulers become more authoritarian, our politics more divisive. And on the deepest level, love can reconnect us with our essential unity with all of life, with the Earth herself.The Earth is a living oneness born from love, being remade by love each instant. And we can be part of its spiritual transformation, its awakening. The Earth is waiting and needing our participation. It has been wounded by our greed and exploitation, and by our forgetfulness of its sacred nature. It needs us to remember and reconnect, to live the oneness that is our true nature. And love is the simplest key to this oneness, this remembrance. Love is the most ordinary, simplest, and most direct way to uncover what is real – the innermost secrets of life. It is at the root of all that exists, as well as in every bud breaking open at springtime, every fruit ripening in fall.Love will remind us that we are a part of life, and that we belong to each other and to this living, suffering planet. Love will reconnect us to the sacred ways known to our ancestors, as well as awaken us to new ways to be with each other and the Earth. We just need to say, “Yes,” to this mystery within our own hearts, to open to the link of love that unites us all, that is woven into the web of life. And then we will uncover the love affair that is life itself and hear the song of unity as it comes alive in our hearts and the heart of the world.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Silence_and_Compassion4_9be4e62baf.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T07:33:22.963Z" alt=""><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE Illustrations by JASMEE RATHOD</h4><hr>

Silence and compassion

<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h3 style="text-align: center">
 REJOINING THE GREAT CONVERSATION
</h3>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />
<h4>
 LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE delivers a heartfelt
 plea to all of us to open our hearts and care for our Mother Earth, value her
 sacredness, and reconnect with her soul.
</h4>
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 We are present at a moment in our shared destiny when the Earth is crying out
 to us to help her in this time of crisis that is destroying her ecosystem, the
 fragile web of life that supports her multihued unity. All around us are what
 Thich Nhat Hanh calls the “bells of mindfulness” – we can hear them ringing in
 the unprecedented species depletion (such as the recent awareness of what is
 called the ‘insect Armageddon’, with a 45-75% loss of insect biomass), the
 oceans filling with plastic at a rate unfathomable a few decades ago, and
 accelerating climate change; all with unforeseen consequences. And, on a
 different level, though just as painful, is the loss of wildness and wonder, a
 diminishing sense of the sacred that nourishes our souls.


 Many of us are responding with action and ideas, even as our governments and
 corporations – with their focus on economic growth and materialism – are
 unable or unwilling to make this a real priority. This was forcefully
 articulated at the recent UN Climate Change COP24 Conference by the
 15-year-old activist Greta Thunberg, who spoke truth to power when she said:
 “We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in
 the past and you will ignore us again.


 “You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of
 being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas
 that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull
 the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even
 that burden you leave to us children. But I don’t care about being popular.
 I care about climate justice and the living planet. …” (<a
 style="color: #333333" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg" target="_blank"
 rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkQSGyeCWg</a>)


 This last sentence brought tears to my eyes, as my soul heard her speak about
 real care for the Earth – for this living, beautiful being who has given us
 life, who has nourished us with her endless generosity, even as we have abused
 and desecrated her, raped and pillaged her body, which our culture regards
 greedily as just a ‘resource’ for our endless use and abuse.


 But behind Greta’s phrase, “the living planet,” is a deeper truth that calls
 out to our forgetfulness. As was known to the ancients and to indigenous
 peoples, our Earth is a being with a soul as well as a body, what in the West
 we called the anima mundi, the soul of the world, and what the Kogi
 in the Sierra Nevada in Colombia call Aluna, the spiritual
 intelligence within nature. Until we recognize, remember, and reconnect with
 the spiritual nature of the Earth, the primal intelligence within all life, we
 will be walking in the darkness of our forgetfulness, unable to find the way
 to work together with her, to start to heal and transform the living oneness
 to which we all belong.Every butterfly, every bee, every waterfall, every
 dream we have, is a part of this living, spiritual being. She is ancient
 beyond our understanding, even as she is crying out at this moment. The
 greatest unspoken tragedy of this time is that we have forgotten her living
 sacred presence, and this is the silent censorship that has clear-cut our
 consciousness. In the West, when the early Christians violently banished
 paganism, they burned the books that understood her magical nature1; and now,
 as the web of life is being torn apart, we do not even know how to respond. We
 do not know how to access her wisdom, how to return to being a part of the
 great conversation that belongs to all of life. We remain stranded on the
 desolate shores of materialism, as in a supermarket where the shelves are
 increasingly empty.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 Our Earth is a being with a soul as well as a body, 
 what in the West we called the anima mundi, the soul of the
 world, 
 and what the Kogi in the Sierra Nevada in Colombia call
 Aluna, 
 the spiritual intelligence within nature.
</h5>

<hr />
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 <img alt="reconnecting-soul-world2" class="w-100 lazyload"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/reconnecting_soul_world2_12c1313a98.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T08:21:43.169Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 Spiritual Activism is an emerging field that calls for a spiritual response to
 our present global crisis – to our present social divisiveness and ecological
 devastation, to our self-destructive identification with an old story of
 separation rather than embracing the living story of life’s interdependent
 oneness. Yes, we desperately need to reduce carbon emissions and pesticides,
 to stop turning rainforests into ranchland or palm oil plantations. But there
 is also a call to reconnect with the sacred within creation, with the
 spiritual lifeblood of the planet. Otherwise we will just be continuing the
 same one-sided conversation that has caused this devastation. We need to work
 together with the Earth, to include her wonder and wisdom. We need to
 reconnect with her soul.


 And this is a work that we each can do. It does not need governments or big
 organizations; just individuals whose hearts are open and who have heard the
 cry of the Earth. Within our own being we can make this connection, and so
 help to bring the sacred alive again in our own daily life and the life of the
 Earth. There are many different ways to reconnect. In a recent book,
 Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life, I outline a number of simple
 spiritual practices, from walking in a sacred
 manner, to cooking with love and cleaning with awareness.2 Whatever
 our practice, this foundational work is not complicated, but rather simply
 requires our attention, real mindfulness. It can empower us to make a real
 contribution to enable humanity to rejoin the great conversation, the sacred
 relationship with the Earth that was part of the Original Instructions given
 to our ancestors.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 Spiritual Activism is an emerging field 
 that calls for a spiritual response to our present global crisis – 
 to our present social divisiveness and ecological devastation, 
 to our self-destructive identification 
 with an old story of separation rather than 
 embracing the living story of life’s interdependent oneness.
</h5>

<hr />
<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 The Earth will continue. We are now living through the sixth mass extinction
 of species in her history. It is our shared future that is uncertain: whether
 we will keep to our ancient promise to witness her wonder and beauty, honor
 her sacred ways; or whether we will continue our present path, stumbling
 through an increasingly soulless wasteland, caught in consumerism, until the
 sea levels rise, the air becomes too toxic, the oceans too acidic, our souls
 too desolate. Again, in the words of the young activist Greta Thunberg, “We
 have run out of excuses and we are running out of time.” But she also said,
 “Change is coming.” The real question is whether we are open to being a part
 of real change – for hearts and hands to help the Earth, for our souls to
 reconnect with the magic and mystery of her living being.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

 1 Beginning in the fourth century, the early Christians banned
 or burned up to 90% of pagan or pre-Christian writings. Of some pagan
 philosophers only fragments now remain (Catherine Nixey,
 The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World).


 2 The chapters “Walking,” “Simplicity” and “Cleaning” have been
 published in previous issues of Heartfulness Magazine.

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />
<h4 style="text-align: center">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE</h4>
<hr />

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE reminds us of the ever-present cycles of Nature, and with them an understanding of time and the sense of sacredness that comes with being in tune with all that is natural. He reminds us that time is essential to life, and thus important to honor in our day-to-day life, instead of the rushing and disconnection associated with our modern-day urban lifestyle.</h4><hr>The sacred is an essential quality to life. It connects us to our own soul and to the Divine that is the source of all that exists. The sacred can be found in any form: in every drop of dew on an early morning spider’s web, in the call of wildfowl at dusk. It speaks to us in a myriad of ways. In my own garden it is in the scent of honeysuckle and the hummingbird drinking nectar, or the chipmunk scurrying after the seeds fallen from the bird feeder. It is also present in every prayer, every song of praise and thanksgiving. The remembrance of the sacred is like a central note within life. Without it something fundamental to our existence is missing. Our daily life lacks a basic nourishment, a depth of meaning.The “sacred” is not something primarily religious or even spiritual. It is not a quality we need to learn or to develop. It belongs to the primary nature of all that is. When the First Peoples felt that everything they saw was sacred, this was not something taught but instinctively known. It was as natural as sunlight, as necessary as breathing. We all have within us a sense of the sacred, a sense of reverence, however we may articulate it. It is a part of our human nature.We each carry this primal knowing within our consciousness, even if we have forgotten it. A relationship to the sacred is older than any formalized religion, even though it lies at the foundation of many religions. It is a fundamental recognition of the wonder, beauty, and divine nature of the world. It is a felt reverence, an inner sense – we even speak of “a sense of the sacred.” If we remember the sacred, we will find ourself in a world awake in wonder. However we may call this mystery, it permeates all of creation. It may be more easily felt in certain places, in ancient groves, beneath star-filled skies, in temples or cathedrals, in the chords of music. But this is a mystery that belongs to all that exists – there is nothing that is separate from it. As such, it celebrates the unity that is within and around us, the living oneness of which we are a part. Our sense of the sacred is a recognition that we are a part of this deeper all-embracing mystery.The sacred is not something static or easily defined. It belongs to the wonder of life and its deepest meaning. It is also part of the flow of life, its constant change. And yet it has cycles, patterns of meaning. Both creation and the soul have their seasons, their times of light and dark, times of birth, blossoming and abundance, times of fruition, decay and apparent barrenness. It can be helpful to recognize these changing seasons of the sacred. Then we can see how the deeper patterns within our own life follow these rhythms – how we are part of this ever-evolving mystery.The sacred is a quality of the soul, of our inner being and the inner being of the Earth. The experience of the sacred follows the rhythms of the soul and of the Earth, the cycles of becoming, the seasons of life. In today’s world we are caught in an image of time as an endless flow of minutes, ays, and years that never return – a river of time that is always passing. We rarely think anymore of time as cyclical, of the days as a movement of light and dark, or the years as a pattern of returning seasons – most of us do not live on the land with its rhythm of sowing and harvesting. We have also almost forgotten how the outer movement of time can reflect the time of the soul. Few still mark the year with the saint’s days, or the prayers, rituals, or dances that belong to sacred days. Nor do we hear the monastery bells that, before the arrival of clocks, divided the day for both the monks and the medieval farmers, a day that began with Matins and ended with Vespers.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/sacred_time2_e2cd7d2ab2.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T14:15:49.022Z" alt=""><hr><hr><h5>The sacred is a quality of the soul,&nbsp; of our inner being and the inner being of the Earth.&nbsp; The experience of the sacred follows&nbsp; the rhythms of the soul and of the Earth,&nbsp; the cycles of becoming, the seasons of life.</h5><hr><hr>This deeper cycle of sacred time, which was known to our ancestors, linked the greater and lesser events of their lives – the days, the seasons, and the years:<hr>To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:&nbsp; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;&nbsp; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.Ecclesiastes 3:1–8, The Bible<hr>This deeper rhythm of time is the rhythm of the sacred. To be in the presence of the sacred is to be present in a time very different from what we experience in our rushed days with the constant demands of the clock. It allows us to listen to a rhythm of meaning, understanding our place within patterns of time that link the growth of a seed to the phases of the moon and the movement of the stars. To live in sacred time is to be present in how this greater pattern connects with our own soul, our inner being, in which every breath is a sacred moment.But despite our forgetfulness, despite our heated or air-conditioned homes and offices, our disconnection from the soil, the seasons still speak to most of us, from the first warm breath of Spring to the cold wind of Winter. The seasons remind us of our deeper roots and the rhythms that are our heritage. As we get older we can also begin to sense the same seasons in the passage of years, from birth and childhood to old age, when our body’s energy lessens before time returns us to the earth. In the unfolding of our soul we can recognize similar patterns. In previous times and cultures this inner unfolding was marked by initiations, by sacred rites of passage. Now, for most of us there are few outer initiations. Instead, if we pay attention, we can come to feel the seasons that define our own soul. We can learn to respect and appreciate the way time speaks to us, how its wisdom is within us.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/sacred_time3_dc8f58df01.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-10T14:18:28.453Z" alt=""><hr>Putting aside our daily concerns and our mind’s clutter, we can learn to be present to the presence of the sacred in each moment. Every moment is unique, offering its own way to connect to what is deepest within us, to the wonder and mystery of being fully alive.Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,&nbsp; a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.&nbsp; If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,&nbsp; this is the best season of your life.Wu-Men<hr>Adapted by the author from Seasons of the Sacred: Reconnecting to the Wisdom within Nature and the Soul. Golden Sufi Center, 2021.

Seasons of the sacred: sacred time

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE is a Sufi and spiritual ecologist who is passionate about the sacredness of the Earth and the oneness of all beings. Here he discusses our current environmental crisis in the light of problems and solutions, and initiates a call to action to contribute to a brighter future.</h4><hr>Walking in the wetlands I encounter a family of river otters playing in the water, then, sliding their sleek bodies onto the land, they tumble over each other in the sand, as a blue heron watches nearby. In their primal world there is neither truth nor falsehood, just life present, unfractured.Once, long ago, we walked in this landscape, were part of this ecology of place. With songs and prayers, dances and dreams we were also alive in life’s wholeness. But today our human world is not like this, its consciousness long lost, held only by a few Indigenous people and others who live close to the Earth. And in recent years social media has increased the noise of discord and distortions, half-truths, falsehoods, and conspiracy theories. Our collective consciousness has become fractured, different voices shouting while the planet burns.And yet, even as our patterns of disbelief poison the Earth, the land, the sea, and the air, even as we deny our responsibility for the coming catastrophe of climate change, or in some ways, more dangerously, think that we can “green the economy,” continuing our fantasy of eternal economic growth, this landscape is still present. It can be heard in every dawn chorus, seen in the “v” of geese flying south, in the fox found curled asleep in my garden. The Earth has not forgotten what is real, even if we are increasingly lost. Buds still break open in springtime, leaves turn golden in autumn. And our bodies still awake every morning into this world, even if our minds are quickly caught in other patterns. While our attention is drawn to our smartphones, sunlight filters through the clouds.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/watching_river_otters2_f11ddfc1f9.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:45:37.698Z" alt="">&nbsp;<hr>And in our hearts there is a thread that connects it all together – the heart that knows the meaning of love and companionship, care and community. Our hearts can recognize the simple magic in birdsong, the essential beauty of a sunrise, the joy of a child’s laughter. Our hearts have not forgotten that we are all a part of one living community, bonded together since the very beginning, since the early days when we walked and played, sang and dreamed in harmony with the Earth and its magical nature. That thread is still present, even if it is covered over by the confusions of today, by our materialistic dreams, even by contemporary techniques that promote well-being. Like the otters playing in the water, it is too simple to be caught in distortion, too primal to be fractured. It can be found in the most ordinary things, a bowl of soup cooked with love and attention, a few kind words exchanged with friends or strangers.Science has presented us with the basic truths of the coming ecological catastrophe: Together with a warming planet it has documented an insect apocalypse and oceans filling with plastic. If we are to survive together with the Earth we have to recognize that our present way of life is unsustainable, and act from this knowing to reduce carbon emissions and stop destroying wild places.But we also have to find the thread that connects back with a deeper truth, a knowing older than our rational mind. Sadly, because so much of our response comes from the same rational consciousness and its technological inventions that created these patterns of distortion, even though this landscape is all around us, it is difficult to reconnect, “to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”With so many voices clamoring for our attention, to whom do we listen, and more important, whom do we trust? A few fundamental truths are becoming more and more self-evident: The interconnected and interdependent nature of the biosphere, and how we are all a part of this living wholeness; how our present dream of material prosperity is destroying the environment at an accelerating rate, causing ecocide as it tears at the fragile web of life that supports us all; how governments and big corporations are too addicted to the present ideology of progress and profit to effect real change, instead increasing economic and social divisiveness; how the voices of young people who are crying out for a future being stolen, and suffering the very real trauma of climate anxiety, are more attuned to the moment than those in positions of power.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/watching_river_otters3_9b443b8394.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T06:54:02.211Z" alt="">&nbsp;<hr>Those of us who have looked through the cracks in our present civilization know that it is over, past its use-by date, but also that possibilities for radical change and transformation are present, like green shoots amidst a dying wasteland. It is possible that this century will be one of increasing insecurity, disturbance, chaos, even social breakdown, and then out of this a new civilization will gradually emerge a civilization that will emerge organically in harmony with nature. Quite different to now. This Great Unraveling that can lead to a Great Turning has the potential to return us to a life-sustaining culture that once again recognizes how all of creation is sacred. And now is the time to begin planting seeds for this transformation, seeds that can germinate in the darkness and difficulties of the coming years and belong to the foundations for a future seven generations or more.&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>It is a doorway into a way of being with each other and the Earth that carries the secrets of our shared existence, where we are a part of a living tapestry that stretches to the stars and beyond.</h4>&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr>Those alive today may never see this emerging civilization, but like the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages who laid their foundation stones knowing that it could be many generations, even centuries, before their buildings would be completed, this should not deter us. We have the opportunity to lay the foundations for a way of life more aligned with the deeper truths of the Earth and our own sacred nature. And I believe a simple step into this landscape, which is always present, though hidden by today’s world of clicks and memes, will help us find what we need. It is a place where we all belong.Watching the river otters playing, tumbling over each other in such intimacy, I know that there is a deeper truth to our journey together with the Earth, a truth older than any belief or ideology, and far from the discords of today. It does not offer a solution to today’s problems, because it is too simple and radical. It is a doorway into a way of being with each other and the Earth that carries the secrets of our shared existence, where we are a part of a living tapestry that stretches to the stars and beyond. And it is here, all around us, present in the most ordinary things.&nbsp;<hr> &nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4>Illustrations by ARATI SHEDDE</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

Watching river otters: visioning a life-sustaining future

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE mourns the forgetting of our connection with the Earth, inviting us once more to remember, reconnect and rekindle the sacred of that relationship in our lives.</h4>The pandemic has confronted us with a world seemingly out of balance, a health crisis easily becoming an economic crisis. Here in California, a summer of raging wildfires has brought climate crisis to our doorstep, the air dense with smoke, the sun rising red, ash falling. As the world spins more and more out of balance there is a pressing need to stay inwardly aligned, to keep our feet on the ground and our hearts open. We cannot afford to contract into fear or be caught in the miasma of disinformation and distortion, to be swept along by the strange currents of this time. It is essential to have a simple spiritual practice to remain centered, whether watching the breath, a prayer, or just resting in silence.The remembrance of the heart is one such practice. Through our remembrance, the Divine becomes alive within our heart and comes to meet us in our daily life. We bring a quality of love into our ordinary life, nourishing our environment in hidden ways. But remembrance also implies forgetfulness; we remember what we have forgotten, being with the Divine as a living presence, in friendship, companionship. Initially, for an individual, awakening is always an act of grace, given as a gift to help us begin our journey home. We are given a taste of our pre-existing state of divine oneness, or presence. Spiritual practice is then a simple way to remain awake from the forgetfulness caused by the illusions of the world, and gradually lift the veils that separate us from the light within us and around us.Because our present culture has lost touch with the knowing of how we are interconnected with the Earth, what the Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh calls “interbeing,” we have forgotten how deeply we affect the Earth as a living being. We are belatedly realizing how our global industrial growth and consumer society are negatively impacting our physical environment, destroying the web of life on an unprecedented scale, pushing the planet’s life support systems to the edge. We do not yet realize how our collective consciousness also impacts the Earth. Earlier cultures lived in harmony with the Earth, recognizing how it was alive spiritually and magically as well as physically. With their prayers and rituals they communed with the Earth and its many inhabitants, keeping the balance between the worlds and never forgetting the Great Spirit present in creation. Their song, dance, drumming infused the Earth with their awareness of its divine nature, their sacred symbols belonging to both the outer and inner worlds. In this way, since the very beginning, they helped the Earth come alive as a magical being, just as our own spiritual practice can help us individually to bring alive our awareness of our divine nature.<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">The remembrance of the heart is one such practice. Through our remembrance, the Divine becomes alive within our heart and comes to meet us in our daily life. We bring a quality of love into our ordinary life, nourishing our environment in hidden ways.</h5>&nbsp;<hr>In the first days, when human consciousness awakened on the Earth, maybe two hundred thousand years ago or longer, something changed, shifted within the spiritual body of the Earth. The light of human consciousness, mythically imaged as fire stolen from the gods, communed directly with the light of the Earth; the human soul and the soul of the world, anima mundi, sang together. The Earth awakened in a new way; a different quality of Earth consciousness was born. And as the first peoples danced and sang their stories and creation myths, the magic of the land awoke. This was also the time of the naming, when shamans or wisdom keepers were given the names of creation, which gave them access to their magical power, the healing properties of plants, the wisdom and powers of animals.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Remembrance_sacred_earth2_433f160b98.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T05:39:41.035Z&quot;" alt="Remembrance-sacred-earth">In this earlier time there was a knowing that has now become deeply hidden – a knowing of the sacred purpose of creation, of its beauty and wonder. And this knowing was continuously coming alive, speaking to human beings in all the myriad voices of the world around, in the streams and storms, in the cries of the birds and the animals, in the first language of life1. And the awakening Earth was cared for by the first peoples, by their ceremonies and prayers, and later by their sacred art – drawings of bison, horses, deer, and then by stone circles aligned to the midsummer rising sun, or temples whose statues often imaged the fertility of the goddess. In this way, human consciousness and Earth consciousness met in a sacred manner and nurtured each other, the light of the human soul and the light within creation helping both humanity and the Earth to evolve, to sing together.And so, for millennia, the Earth and humanity evolved together, until we began our journey of separation from the Earth, when God retreated into heaven, the soil stopped being sacred, and we began to forget. Now our creation myth is the Big Bang of science, but where in this story are the salmon swimming upstream, and the bear hibernating in winter? Where are the spirits of the mountains and rivers, felt in the winds and the water? Where are the power and the wonder, the magic that can come alive through our senses, through our direct relationship with the land and its inhabitants? What have we lost? What have we forgotten? And what does this mean to the Earth Herself that our prayers are no longer present?Sadly, tragically, our forgetfulness of the Earth’s magical nature, and the fact that so few of us practice the rituals that sustain this relationship, have meant that this magical living dimension of the Earth has receded from consciousness. For most people it remains only in myth or children’s stories. Its song is no longer heard; its sacred meaning has been forgotten. And the Earth Herself has suffered, Her light withdrawing.Now, the Earth is dying physically and spiritually. We cannot return to the dances and stories of our ancestors – they belong to a different time and place. But the simple act of our remembrance of Her sacred nature can help in this moment. And the heart’s remembrance is always love. Love is life’s greatest gift and our greatest gift back to life. And, as the poet Mary Oliver writes so poignantly, “There is only one question: how to love this world.” We can help the world remember what our culture has forgotten – how the soil, the seeds, the rivers and the stars all carry a central message of love. In all its diverse forms, its different ways of being and breathing, the living Earth is a celebration of love. And now it is calling out to us, crying to us to remember its sacred nature.&nbsp;<hr>1 In The Spell of the Sensuous (1996), David Abram describes how “for the Inuit, as for numerous other peoples, humans and animals all originally spoke the same language.” He quotes an Inuit woman:&nbsp;In the very earliest time when peoples and animals lived on earth... All spoke the same language. That was the time when words were like magic...Those who are recognized as shamans or medicine persons “most fully remember the primordial language, and are thus able to slip, at will, out of the purely human discourses in order to converse directly with the other powers.” Adapted from A Handbook for Survivalists: Caring for the Earth, A Series of Meditations. Available as a free PDF at www.goldensufi.org. © 2020, The Golden Sufi Center&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

Remembrance & a sacred earth

<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE looks back on a life of learning about love in its many forms and faces, from the most human to the most esoteric, and what it means to him that love is the source of all that exists.</h4>One of my favorite practices, a prayer, is to imagine placing the world within my heart and feeling the love that infuses everything – every bird and butterfly, the trees and the ocean, the chipmunks that have just reappeared in the garden after their hibernation, the bleary-eyed child waiting for the school bus I pass on my morning walk. Everything, every dream, every cloud passing, is infused with love, is an expression of love. Love is the source of all that exists, is all that exists. This primary mystical awareness is stamped into my soul and consciousness, following me throughout the day, and especially in the early hours of the morning, when prayer takes me, when the world of thoughts has faded away and the heart’s presence is all that matters.Scientists may tell us that our universe began thirteen billion years ago with the Big Bang, when from an infinitely hot and dense single point matter came into existence. But mystics know a different truth: from the unborn and undying emptiness, existence is constantly being created as a flow of light and love that then becomes physical form. And this love remains the foundation, the essence of everything – every particle and every star. It is the primary energy, power, presence within the created world. And it is our divine nature, always evolving and changing within our body and soul, even as it remains constant.In today’s world, we associate love with personal relationships. We seek for it in a lover, experience it through the tenderness of a mother’s touch. We often associate it with passion, desire, or sex, even though its essence is quite different. I never knew love in my own childhood, never heard the words, “I love you.” I don’t think my parents even knew they existed. Instead, it was a cold middle-class childhood of boarding school and cold baths, endless sports on muddy fields. But in my late teens love came calling, singing out its name, drawing me deep within the heart.Love calls to us in many different ways. As Rumi says:sultan, saint, pickpocket love has everyone by the ear dragging us to God by secret waysWhile most people seek love in the tangle of human relationships, I first experienced love and the longing for love sitting at the feet of my teacher, a white-haired Russian woman who had just come back from India where she had been trained by a Sufi master. In her small room beside the train tracks in North London, this invisible essence was present, tangible. This is what was awakened in me through the simple practice of sitting at the feet of my teacher and meditating on the heart, following the ancient Sufi tradition of divine love, the secret of secrets.Love speaks to our soul and to our body. Love includes all the senses – taste and touch, smell, sight, and sound. Love by its very nature includes everything. It can be found anywhere, because it is everywhere. The mystic uncovers the simple secret: that in truth love flows through everything – sweet, tender, aching, knowing, as well as dark and passionate. And as this primal energy, this greatest power, awakens within us, within our heart, our soul, always it draws us deeper into its own mystery, into the secret of oneness, what the Sufis call the unity of being.My own journey took me from formlessness to form. As an intense young man, when I first met my teacher I only looked for love within the heart in deep meditation. But then I fell in love and was awakened to the beauty of a woman, to the feminine side of love and longing. I had been drawn into this mystery by the eyes of a woman and a longing in my heart. The tangle of her hair, the softness of her body, had taken and taught me what spiritual texts could not. Divine love is a spiritual and physical experience, and in a woman the two are united, body and soul. The Indian poet and princess Mirabai knew this secret. She was in love with Krishna, her “Dark Lord,” and she left her palace to dance before him. She had experienced the soul’s rapture with her Dark Lord, and speaks of the body’s “hidden treasures”:O friend, understand: the body is like the ocean, rich with hidden treasures.Open your innermost chamber and light its lamp.Within the body are gardens, rare flowers, the inner Music; within the body a lake of bliss, on it the white soul-swans take their joy.And in the body, a vast market – go there, trade, sell yourself for a profit you can’t spend.Mira says, her Lord is beyond praising. Allow her to dwell near your feet.In her words of rapture are one of the deepest mysteries of the feminine: how in her body are “gardens, rare flowers, and the inner Music.” This is not just erotic imagery, but alludes to the secret of creation, and the beauty and wonder that belong to this essential substance. Without this quality of the feminine there would be no joy, the magic of life would not be present. Colors and fragrances would fade into dull gray days.And now, as an old man, I find this secret of creation all around me. It walks with me beside the bay in the early morning, as I follow the quails scurrying down the path, the baby rabbits hopping out of sight, the coyotes stalking in the nearby field, and the glimpse of a river otter, its nose just above the water. And in the depths of night I know this love both in the emptiness and the world of forms.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_and_prayer2_dc62540697.jpg" alt="image name alternative"></figure>I was born a stranger to love, did not know its meaning, even its existence. Over twenty years passed in a grayed-out world before desire for Truth took me to love. And now, all that is really left a lifetime later seems to be this quality of love that sustains me. After so long a journey – often tired, longing just to rest – I return to love. Or love returns. And this love includes everything. It belongs not just to a human relationship, or to an inner relationship with God; it is a love that is everything, that flows through all that exists – sweet, tender, aching, knowing. Or just a simple presence within the heart, a soft warmth that sometimes brings bliss.And love is free, a gift to each of us. Even if it costs blood and a broken heart, it is still free. Love is life speaking to its beloved and the beloved speaking to life. And in that conversation so many things can happen, so many miracles can be born – the small unsuspected miracles that we often do not notice, like a moment of sunlight through the clouds, a flower blossoming from the sprout of a seed, a smile from a stranger. This world is steeped in this divine quality that is waiting to be born, to be brought into existence, to be loved into being. And just to be a part of it is enough, is a story that sings in the heart.Yes, the world is full of discord and suffering, tears and blood, the bomb falling on a marketplace, the mother whose starving child is dying in her arms. This pain is real. And I do not attempt to understand how this is all born from love, is an expression of love. I do remember once, when I was deeply praying for those suffering, a still voice came into my heart saying “You think I do not love these people?” But how all suffering belongs to God and is also an expression of divine love is a mystery my mind cannot grasp, even if my heart has been taken to places where only this deeper oneness is real.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_and_prayer3_adadc0f698.jpg" alt="image name alternative"></figure>And so, when I wake in the night and pray for the world, I am especially drawn to places of darkness and pain, to war and injustice, those fighting or demonstrating for freedom, those without food or shelter. And in my heart I also feel the Earth being torn apart – species and wild beauty lost. Through it all the love remains, the one constant, the only true solace, the deeper knowing of our divine nature: that we are all born from love and will return to love.This journey has taken me from formlessness to form, to life’s unending multiplicity, beautiful, numinous, and most ordinary. And then back into the infinite emptiness of the beyond. Love cries and often my heart feels broken. I sense that love is really all we have to give, and the meaning behind every experience that touches the soul. Love is life’s greatest gift and our greatest gift back to life. And especially at this time, life, the Earth, is calling out to be loved, to be held in the heart, so that this thread of love that is present throughout creation can support it in its crisis, so that a new story for humanity and the Earth can begin to be woven into the fabric of existence.So, in the night, in the empty hours after midnight, traditionally known as the “Hour of God” or “the Night Prayer,” when prayers are especially powerful, I turn my attention to the Earth and the heart, to the flow of love that comes from the beyond into existence, knowing only that this is a mystery to which I belong, felt in the tender touch of a loved one as well as the vast spaces where stars are born.<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/love_and_prayer4_2a7d348a49.jpg"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>&nbsp;

Love and prayer

&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE &amp; HILARY HART explore the contemplative, spiritual value of walking in Nature, and share with us a simple walking practice.</h4><hr>In the busy-ness of our contemporary life, we are drawn into ceaseless activity that often separates us from the deeper dimension of ourselves. With our smartphones and computer screens, we often remain caught on the surface of our lives amidst the noise and chatter that continually distract us, that stops us from being rooted in our true nature. Unaware we are drowned deeper and deeper in a culture of soulless materialism.At this time I find it more and more important to have outer activities that can connect us to what is more natural and help us live in relationship to the&nbsp;deep root of our being, and in an awareness of the moment which alone can give real meaning to our everyday existence. Over the years I have developed a number of simple practices that bring together action and a quality of heart-centered attention, or deepening awareness, that can nourish our lives in hidden ways. These activities, like walking, cooking with love and attention, can reconnect us with the web of life, our natural interconnection with life in its beauty and wonder. They can help us ‘declutter’ our outer life and instead become rooted in what is simple and real. One of these practices, which combines action with awareness, is walking.<hr><h3 style="text-align:center;">Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.</h3><h3 style="text-align:center;">—Thich Nhat Hanh</h3><hr><hr>I have always loved to walk early in the morning, to sense the Earth at the beginning of a day, to feel Her pulse, Her beauty and magic, before thoughts and demands clutter my day. Waking early, I have a hot cup of tea, meditate in silence, and then, as soon as the first light comes, I walk down the hill to the road beside the wetlands where I live. Sometimes the frost is sparkling around me, sometimes the water is clouded with fog, an egret appearing white against the reeds. This is another time of silent meditation, walking, breathing, feeling the Earth. I try to be as empty as possible, just to be present in the half-light, aware of what is around me. Prayer, meditation, presence, awareness – these are just words for a practice that immerses me in a mystery we call nature. Here the sacred speaks to me in its own language, and I try to listen.Now I live beside the wetlands, and the tidal water is part of this meeting, this communion. Other times, in other landscapes, it has been rivers and streams, the sounds of waterfowls’ wings, the dawn rising across meadows. Or in forests, a different bird chorus, animals skittering across the path, a deer and her young. Always it is a listening awareness, a deep receptivity to what is around me, an honoring of a world other than people. It is a remembrance of what is essential, elemental, and its nourishment carries me through the day. It is a return to the sacred, sensed and felt, without words or thoughts – a primal consciousness as if of the first day.This is a practice that has been with me since my teens – when I first started to meditate I also needed to walk. It was not taught or learned, but came as a need, a way to be, an antidote to much of the world around me – a world of people and problems, demands and desires. When one foot follows the other and the day has hardly begun, it seems these demands cannot touch me, as if I am immersed in something simpler, more essential. Placing each foot on the earth is a practice, but a practice that comes from my own roots, not a book or a teacher. Later I came to hear it called “walking in a sacred manner,” and it is sacred, a return to what is sacred. But it also is deeper or more primal than any purpose. Nature speaks to me and I listen. Nature calls and something deep within me responds, and I just need to give it space. I am part of a life far greater than any ‘me’.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/walking2_img_326f62d35e.jpg?updated_at=2023-03-31T13:33:15.303Z" alt="walking2_img"><hr>The Earth gives us sustenance: the air we breathe, the food we eat. She is generous in so many ways, even as we forget Her and abuse Her. But there is also this deeper nourishment, this invisible, intangible giving. My early morning walk is a communion – if I am receptive, it is a wine drunk deeply. It comes through Her landscape, moss dripping from the trees, white and pink blossoms welcoming spring, the cry of a sea bird. Those first rays of sunrise are always a blessing. I do not understand this with my mind, but my soul feels it, needs it. Once again we are back at the beginning, in that elemental world we never truly leave. Our present culture may have forgotten it,&nbsp;disowned it, covered it over, may pretend we no longer need this communion, but my soul and my feet know otherwise. This is the landscape of the soul as much as it is the wetlands stretching towards the ocean. But it is also any landscape we walk. A walk on city streets is made of the same elements: feet touching ground, the rhythm of walking, breathing, the same sky overhead, the wind touching the face.I would like to say it is easy, but so often I have to remember to reconnect, to empty the clutter of the coming day from my mind, my everyday thoughts. I have to stay in a place of awareness, sense my feet, feel the air, listen. I have to remember that I am not separate but part of everything around me. I have to push aside this great myth of separation, the great untruth. We are the air we breathe, the earth we touch, the same one life, alive in so many ways. We are the Earth awakening in the early morning, just as we are the buds breaking&nbsp;into color in the spring. To be fully alive is to feel how we are part of this embracing mystery. My morning walk is a remembrance, a reconnection, experienced in the body and felt in the soul.<hr>So often I have to remember to reconnect, to empty the clutter of the coming day from my mind, my everyday thoughts. I have to stay in a place of awareness, sense my feet, feel the air, listen. I have to remember that&nbsp;I am not separate but part of everything around me.<hr>&nbsp;<h3 style="text-align:center;">Walking Practice</h3><hr>Walking reinforces our connection to the Earth, one step at a time. Attuning to the rhythms of one’s feet, the swaying of one’s arms, the in and out of breath, the ways walking moves us through time and space, helps develop this relationship, reminding us consciously and unconsciously just how much a part of nature we are. Nature is cyclic and rhythmic, and walking – when we are not focused on where we are going – attunes us to this non-linear reality.Walking practice is perhaps best begun alone, when the intimacy of nature’s communication can be sensed without distraction. Just as when we meet a lover in the early part of a relationship, we do not want to share that meeting with others. Choose a time when you can be alone, when listening, hearing, and sensing can take place. Perhaps the start or the end of the day, before life’s clamoring takes hold or after it lets go. Lunchtime or an afternoon break from work might be more difficult, but if that is the time available, then make sure the walk is long enough for you to let go of work thoughts or tensions of the day.Turn off the cell phone, or better yet, leave it at home or the office. There is a way that the vulnerabilities that come with being alive have been squelched by our daily-life safety tools, like cell phones. If you can be without the protection and constant access they provide, try it. Social media will not miss documentation from your walk.Find a park or a path through quiet woods if you can. Let the rhythm of your steps soothe your mind and create a space for listening. Feel how your feet connect with the earth, how the air moves through your lungs. Follow your attention as it is drawn inward and outward both – to the inner movements of your body and to the feeling of warmth or cold, the sight of birds, the sound of a distant plane. Let your thoughts and impressions move through and out, as part of the natural rhythm of walking. Just as we come back to the breath in silent meditation, return your attention to your feet and their meeting and letting go of the ground.Commit to walking every day if you can. Walk without expectation, with an attitude of openness and gratitude. If you feel a longing inside you – a need to connect, a desire to be closer to nature – let it motivate and guide you.The nineteenth-century existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once wrote in a letter to his niece, “Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”This is the first of the practices from Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee &amp; Hilary Hart’s <a href="https://goldensufi.org/press/">Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred in Everyday Life</a>, 2017. It is reprinted with written permission from the authors.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE &amp; HILARY HART</h4><hr>

Walking

<h3 style="text-align:center;">A Simple Reflection</h3><h4>LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE explores the tension between AI and spiritual growth, asking whether technology supports inner transformation—or distracts us from the turn toward the heart that our world so urgently needs.</h4><a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/why-not-artificial-consciousness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Artificial Intelligence</a> is becoming increasingly pervasive in everyday life. Some people are using AI for spiritual guidance, and there are even AI spiritual guru avatars that provide personalized on-demand meditations, counsel, and even self-initiation and spiritual blessings. The question we need to ask is: do AI and spiritual growth really intersect, or is this another illusion distracting us from inner life and real change?AI works by learning patterns from vast amounts of data, largely sourced from the internet, to make predictions or generate content. It belongs to the mental/informational plane and comes from an accumulation of past thoughts, ideas, images, and patterns to which it can give us access. It can organize these thoughts, rearrange them, and appear to give us insight, but it always comes from the past.Spiritual life, however, is about going beyond the mind and its constant stream of thoughts, either into a state of pure awareness, the now, or into the divine love we can experience through the heart. It returns us from the ego’s illusory sense of a separate self to the unity of true nature. The spiritual path can even take us beyond, into the primal emptiness that underlies creation, the Absence experienced through an empty mind, or love’s infinite ocean in which our individual self and all thoughts dissolve.Spiritual life offers us the direct experience of stillness, emptiness, and love, rather than the constant chatter of the mind and its distractions. And through this inner experience, we become open to change, real change that comes from within, from a higher dimension, rather than the accumulated information of the mind and the conditioned patterns of the ego. Real change only comes from within, and from a spiritual perspective, this means from the Divine, the Self, soul, or atman—the eternal dimension of our being. Meditation, stilling the mind, watching the breath, or focusing on the heart, is a way to give us access to this inner dimension. In contrast, AI belongs to the past, to an accumulation of past thoughts, images, and ideas, and as such is a distraction from real change and the inner work required.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ai_spiritual_life2_07f06abe0e.webp" alt="ai-spiritual-life2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;AI may be described as “faster than the human brain,” but this comes from a limited understanding of our human potential and our ability to access the higher mind. The higher mind is the consciousness of the Self, which functions on the plane of unity, and is therefore much quicker than the rational mind, which functions on the plane of duality (the separation of subject and object). Referred to as bodhichitta, or “awakened mind” in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-diverse-faces-of-the-buddha" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buddhism</a>, the higher mind recognizes the inherent unity and interconnections in all things and is not limited by the constrictions of past and future. Essentially, it functions outside of time.In Sufism, this awakened mind is described as the consciousness of the heart, which is the locus of our divine nature. The heart both sees and knows the truth inherent in all things, the unity of being to which we belong, and the patterns of transformation which are part of our true nature. Through the consciousness of the heart, we can access our divine Self and live from this center of our being, guided from within.The question then is how much AI is a distraction in our world today. We live in a time of deep uncertainty and cultural and ecological crisis. What may be most needed is not more technology, but more love, care, and responsibility—for one another and for the Earth. These qualities are central to spiritual life, yet they sit uneasily alongside technologies that require vast energy and water use and expanding data centers. And while the hype around AI says it will bring transformative change, reshaping our world, it does not introduce a new quality of consciousness, which is vitally needed at this time. In this sense, it is a distraction from the need for real change, the change that can help bring our civilization back into balance with the natural world that sustains us. It promises a technological future. Yet anyone who has seen through the cracks in our present civilization knows that technology cannot save us; rather, it is at the root of much of the polycrisis that confronts us.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/ai_spiritual_life3_a97fcdad86.webp" alt="ai-spiritual-life3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;AI reflects a civilization increasingly disconnected from its inner life, without the roots needed to nourish or sustain us. There are a few signs that AI is leading us back to what is simple, essential, and deeply human. To simply state: AI has neither heart nor soul—qualities that belong to the essence of our human nature, and give true meaning and purpose to life.We need to return our awareness to the living Earth, what I have called “a deep ecology of consciousness,” so that we can create a sustainable future for seven generations or more. AI, by its very nature, can only recreate past patterns and thus encourages us to overidentify with a way of thinking that has become globally self-destructive. AI may enable us to gather information, but it cannot help us make the changes we so desperately need. In fact, it may seduce us into avoiding deeper inquiry, while the vast sums of money and attention being poured into its development could be much better spent on the social and environmental polycrisis that confronts us.Spiritual life is a journey beyond the mind into the deeper dimensions of ourselves, whether understood as a state of pure awareness or an immersion in divine love. It is a turning from the mind to the heart, from the ego to the soul or Self. And through this inner change, we can learn to be of service in the outer world. As Thich Nhat Hanh beautifully said, “Real change will only happen when we fall in love with the planet.” No machine can do that for us. That work remains deeply, quietly human.&nbsp;<hr>Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL<hr>&nbsp;

Home› Contributors